Great Philosophical Debates: Free Will and Determinism

Divine Decrees and Human Choices: Grotius on the Law of Fate and Punishment

Grotiana ◽

10.1163/18760759-04000003 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 76-101

Author(s):

Francesca Iurlaro

Keyword(s):

Free Will ◽

Divine Foreknowledge ◽

Interesting Insight ◽

Human Liberty ◽

The Law ◽

Philosophical Debates ◽

Insight Into ◽

Scholarly Attention

Hugo Grotius’s Philosophorum sententiae de fato et de eo quod in nostra est potestate (from hereafter: psf ) has, so far, received little scholarly attention, even though it provides us with an interesting insight into Grotius’s philosophical interests (and the intellectual debates that these interests were reacting to). This text, published posthumously in 1648 (Paris and Amsterdam) by Grotius’s wife, Maria van Reigensberg, contains translations of texts from various philosophers on the question of fate. The aim of this article is to 1) place the debate on fate, in which Grotius was actively involved throughout all his life and career, in the wider context of the theological and philosophical debates on free will and divine foreknowledge; 2) acknowledge the importance played by Grotius’s psf , a gnomological collection of philosophical sources ranging from Pythagorean philosophers to early patristic authors all providing different, although converging arguments in favor of the existence of free will; and 3) suggest that debates on fate are distinctively linked by Grotius with those on the importance of law and punishment as a guarantee of order. This “legalistic” interpretation of fate ultimately allows Grotius to reconcile divine decrees with human liberty.

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Philosophy and the Folk: On Some Implications of Experimental Work For Philosophical Debates on Free Will

Journal of Cognition and Culture ◽

10.1163/156853706776931240 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 6 (1-2) ◽

pp. 239-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Manuel Vargas

Keyword(s):

Free Will ◽

Experimental Work ◽

Philosophical Debates

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When Mother Earth Rises Up

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000112 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 44 (4) ◽

pp. 271-277 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Simona Sacchi ◽

Paolo Riva ◽

Marco Brambilla

Keyword(s):

Free Will ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Natural Disaster ◽

Mental States ◽

Disaster Victims ◽

Willingness To Help ◽

Mother Earth

Anthropomorphization is the tendency to ascribe humanlike features and mental states, such as free will and consciousness, to nonhuman beings or inanimate agents. Two studies investigated the consequences of the anthropomorphization of nature on people’s willingness to help victims of natural disasters. Study 1 (N = 96) showed that the humanization of nature correlated negatively with willingness to help natural disaster victims. Study 2 (N = 52) tested for causality, showing that the anthropomorphization of nature reduced participants’ intentions to help the victims. Overall, our findings suggest that humanizing nature undermines the tendency to support victims of natural disasters.

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