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The Spike [or Victoria University College Review 1961]

(3) The consequences

(3) The consequences

I have tried to indicate under (2) what are the aspects of human behaviour that induce the determinist to deny that we ever act freely and why I think he is misguided in so doing. The undesirable logical consequences of the determinist's thesis are obvious from what I have said. It would do away with a useful and workable distinction between two types of human actions. Its practical consequences are also particularly unfortunate. We all know how easy it is to feel tied by our past and know too that the more we think we are tied by our past the more we are so tied. What we say effects what we believe, what we believe effects what we are. True, what I believe about the position of London does not change London much, but what I believe about my ability does make a difference to my ability; more than this, to believe I am powerless makes me, indeed, powerless.

To sum up, the determinist has a case to argue: the new discoveries of our age might have made it appropriate to deny that any human actions are free; but I hope I have shown that they do not in fact do so.

Mary Thompson