Does compatibilism entail that the world is deterministic?

Question:No. Compatibilism is just the rejection of the axiom that free will and determinism are mutually exclusive. An incompatibilist believes that the only the possibilities are:

1) Free will, nondeterminism
2) Determinism, no free will
3) No determinism, but no free will either.

A compatibilist believes that all three of these are possibilities, along with

4) Determinism and free will

Since compatibilism admits possibilities (1) and (3), which entail nondeterminism, compatibilism does not entail determinism.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: No. Compatibilism is just the rejection of the axiom that free will and determinism are mutually exclusive. An incompatibilist believes that the only the possibilities are:

1) Free will, nondeterminism
2) Determinism, no free will
3) No determinism, but no free will either.

A compatibilist believes that all three of these are possibilities, along with

4) Determinism and free will

Since compatibilism admits possibilities (1) and (3), which entail nondeterminism, compatibilism does not entail determinism.

Compatibilism is the belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent (people who hold this belief are known as compatibilists). This does not mean that the world is necessarily deterministic.

nope

I googled the term "compatibilism" and got the following result from one of the sites I was referred to:

"[Compatibilism is the] [v]iew that free will and determinism are compatible. Even though all our actions are caused, it is held, we can still be free in the only senses that are ... possible."

This indicates to me that compatibilism is deterministic. If we are not born in the United States, for example, it is legally impossible for us to become President of the United States.

(Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, would like to become our president, but he is legally precluded from doing so because he was born in Austria, though he COULD become a U.S. senator from California, and he might find this to be an adequate consolation prize.)

Often determinism is not absolute but only partial. It is extremely unlikely that a talented African American born in South Central Los Angeles will ever be able to get the education necessary to become a doctor or a lawyer, but it is not completely impossible. Some of them have done it.

A lot of people who think that the American system is the best of all possible systems say that this proves that anybody in the ghetto, if he or she works hard enough, can become anything he or she wants. This, of course, is utter nonsense.