Determinism and Free Will
Brutus orchestrated a plot to assassinate Caesar. One might think that he could have done otherwise - he could have had a change of heart; he could have remained loyal to Caesar, etc. But, according to Peter Van Inwagen (a twentieth-century Philosopher), if the laws of nature that govern our world are deterministic, then Brutus could not have done otherwise. First, let’s define our terms. Determinism is the idea that the universe unfolded in a completely predictable manner to some observer who is outside the universe. In other words, the initial state of the universe made sure that all subsequent states will occur. If you were to replay the tape of the universe, it would unfold in the same way. And this is due to the laws of physics that make sure that whatever happens will follow then and happen in the same way. We note that the predictability is to an outsider of the universe, as an agent in the universe would be able to predict its own actions and not take them, thus producing