Metaphysical libertarianism is the philosophical position that humans possess genuine free will, which means determinism (the idea that every event is completely fixed by prior causes) is false. It claims that when you make a choice, you genuinely could have chosen differently under the exact same circumstances. This makes you the true originator of your actions rather than a link in an unbroken physical chain.
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Imagine the universe is a giant, precise machine. If every event is strictly caused by a prior event, then your choice of coffee this morning was set in stone billions of years ago.
This is determinism: a world where you are just a passenger in your own body, following a script you didn't write.
Metaphysical libertarianism rejects this script. It argues that for you to be truly free, you must have been able to do otherwise under the exact same conditions.
You are not a domino falling in a line; you are an agent capable of starting a new, uncaused chain of events.
Philosopher Robert Kane proposed that we build our character during what he called Self-Forming Actions. These are high-tension moments where we are torn between two paths, and our choice isn't predetermined by our past.
This view insists you are the true author of your actions, and therefore, the only one responsible for them.
Metaphysical libertarianism divides mainly into physical and non-physical accounts. Non-physical approaches, backed by interactionist dualists, argue that brain events do not have an entirely physical explanation, allowing a non-physical mind or soul to override physical causality. Thinkers like C. S. Lewis proposed that physical indeterminism could provide an entry point for a non-physical entity to act on reality.
Naturalistic approaches do not abandon physicalism. Instead, they look to physical indeterminism, such as probabilistic subatomic particle behavior, to provide the necessary openness in nature. Robert Kane describes free volition as a complex process where indeterminism acts as an obstacle or resistance within the will that a person overcomes through effort. Other naturalistic views invoke panpsychism, suggesting a quality of mind exists in all particles across the universe.
Standard event causation explains occurrences through previous events, like a tree falling because of wind and rot. In contrast, agent-causal theorists like George Berkeley, Thomas Reid, and Roderick Chisholm argue that an acting human is not moved by prior events, states, or desires. Instead, the person acts directly as an agent.
Chisholm described human agents as having the status of a prime mover unmoved. When you act, you cause an event to happen, but nothing causes you to cause it. Critics like William James questioned this view, asking how an agent can be held responsible if an action emerges as a novelty separate from the agent's past character and desires.
In metaphysical libertarianism, does genuine free will require that you could have done otherwise under identical conditions?
Yes, a break in the causal chain is required.. Libertarianism insists that true agency means you are not just a domino reacting to the past, but an uncaused starter of new events.
Does metaphysical libertarianism claim that free will is compatible with a strictly deterministic universe?
False. Libertarianism insists that free will requires a break in the causal chain of the universe, making it fundamentally incompatible with determinism.
Metaphysical libertarianism is the same concept as political libertarianism.
False. While they share a name, metaphysical libertarianism deals with the nature of the will, whereas the political version focuses on individual liberty and government role.
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William Belsham recorded the first use of the term in 1789. He used it during a debate about free will to oppose determinist and necessitarian views.
Early philosophers like John Duns Scotus, René Descartes, and Immanuel Kant did not know about quantum mechanics. Modern libertarians later looked to subatomic indeterminism to explain how the physical world avoids strict determinism.
Not all of them did. Niels Bohr, one of the founders of quantum theory, suggested that no connection could be made between the indeterminism found in nature and the freedom of the human will.
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Your brain decides before 'you' do. So who's driving?
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