The debate on free will is dominated by the discussion between compatibilists and incompatibilists. The central intuition of the incompatibilist is that the future must be open; on the other hand,... Show moreThe debate on free will is dominated by the discussion between compatibilists and incompatibilists. The central intuition of the incompatibilist is that the future must be open; on the other hand, for the compatibilist it makes no difference to free will whether or not the laws of nature are deterministic. This paper argues that we can hold the incompatiblist and compatibilist intuitions together with the doctrine of free will, on the condition that we deny the seemingly evident claim that determinism implies a closed future. In order to deny this claim, I develop a new version of presentism that I call causal presentism. The causal presentist holds that only the present exists, and that statements about the past and the future are statements about what the present causally implies. Within this framework, the open future and determinism are compatible so long as we are willing to accept that our present choices determine not just the future, but also the past. I discuss several counterarguments that can be brought against this idea, showing that they lack force. In doing so, I demonstrate that causal presentism is worthy of further development. Show less
In the period between the world wars the Rotterdam author Jo Otten revealed a view of the world in his writings that can be called fairly unique in Dutch literature. The first fruits of Otten's... Show moreIn the period between the world wars the Rotterdam author Jo Otten revealed a view of the world in his writings that can be called fairly unique in Dutch literature. The first fruits of Otten's pen were born during his education, when he studied Trade Economics. These are texts steeped in a melancholic atmosphere and betray the thinking of the French poet Charles Baudelaire. Over the years Otten became convinced that everything in life was dependant on a position of satisfaction. In his critical work he reacted to stagnation by pleading for a 'mobile' way of life, where everything was constantly on the move. It describes the hyper-awareness of the modernist: a person subject to doubt, who resists stagnation and reflects this in his work. Otten introduced his critical view of the world in the essay Mobiliteit en revolutie (Mobility and Revolution) (1932). In this essay he applauded the 'mobile person', an autonomous, chameleon-like figure who tries to escape social stagnation in various ways, some of them even surrealistic. Otten put into words the fundamental unrest that is the consequence of such a way of life in his kaleidoscopic novella Bed en wereld (Bed and World) (1932). Show less
