Determinism + Free Will = Compatibilism <3

Recently a very intelligent man asked me: But is it possible that scientific organization of cause and effect and Free Will can go together? That is, if one accepts that the world is scientifically organized and every choice has a cause and effect that exists before and after, can Free Will still happen?




YES

In fact this is the view that Kant and Hume take!

The idea that free will and determinism are complimentary is called compatiblism because in this case determinism and free will are compatible like any given fly bitch and Jake Goldbas.

Two flavors of Determinism
This is what I see as one of two intelligent routes to take, because basically everyone accepts some form of cause and effect.

The other intelligent route is just to cut out free will all together, but that's not what we want, and it's not pragmatic. (This second route is actually what I am closer to today, although I am looking to get swayed if possible).

The United States legal system is based both on causality and a form of free will. Ultimately our legal system has a lot to do with Free Will.


Two flavors of Compatibilism
Kant thought that because we can't know things in themselves and only their appearances, and also because the infinite doctrine of Determinism is unverifiable (how could you verify something infinite?) anything less than free will is unacceptable. He also thought you need free will for morality.

Hume thought that cause and effect was different from Free Will. He thought they were separate. I don't completely understand Hume's rock and roll out of this thing, but it has to do with the way he defined the two terms, and to some extent this makes more sense to me as an incompatibilist argument.