We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected]
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
It may seem odd that Rudolf Carnap chose to include in his philosophy of science textbook a whole chapter on the problem of free will and determinism. The problem, or better a tangle of related problems, had exercised metaphysicians and ethicists for thousands of years. And by his own account Carnap engaged in neither metaphysics nor ethics and wanted to leave traditional philosophy behind him. So, on the face of it, the chapter presents us with a puzzle about Carnap as well as about free will and determinism. Rather than a full treatment of the traditional issues, the chapter was a response to a then recent paper by Hans Reichenbach that argued that the deterministic laws of classical physics preclude genuine choice as well as any meaningful freedom. Reichenbach goes on to argue that if, however, the fundamental laws are statistical as in quantum mechanics, both choice and freedom are restored. Carnap rejects both of Reichenbach’s conclusions and in the process addresses questions about how we are to understand laws of nature and causation as well as freedom and choice. This chapter examines and assesses Carnap’s arguments and asks whether they amount to a deviation from his anti-metaphysical stance.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.