Kant on Free Will [Topical Collection]
Issue: Issue 21 • Author/s: Derk Pereboom
Topics: Epistemology, Ethics, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of action
For Kant transcendental freedom consists in the power of agents to produce actions without being causally determined by antecedent conditions in exercising this power. He contends that we cannot establish whether we are actually or even possibly free in this sense. Kant claims only that our conception of ourselves as transcendentally free involves no inconsistency, and that as a result the belief that we are free in this sense meets a relevant standard of minimal credibility. Justification of this belief ultimately depends on practical reasons: the need to believe that…