Introduction to Philosophy: Freedom

Professor William Blattner

Hume's First Argument that
Moral Responsibility Presupposes Psychological Determinism

  1. If we have counter-causal freedom, then our characters do not cause our choices.

  2. If our characters do not cause our choices, then our choices having nothing to do with our characters.

  3. If our choices having nothing to do with our characters, we are not responsible for them.

  4. If we are not responsible for our choices, then we deserve no praise or blame for them.