1Free Will as a Gift from God: A New Compatibilism

Classical determinism can be defined in terms of predictability; indeed, it is sometimes called 'predictive determinism.'1 (Recall Laplace's demon who could predict the entire future on the basis of Newtonian mechanics plus the positions and velocities of basic particles at a particular time.) Predictability can be explicated in terms of logical entailment. Let us say that a universe is deterministically predictable if a complete description of the state of affairs at any particular time, conjoined with the laws of nature, entails a complete description of the future; every event in nature is a logical consequence of past conditions and natural laws.2 Determinism is the thesis that our universe is deterministically predictable. Incompatibilism is the claim that determinism rules out our having free will. Peter Van Inwagen has captured the nub of the difficulty in a simple argument