IB Philosophy 6.2.3 Causality and Determinism Key Definitions

the libertarian view of self-originating causal power, holding that rational agents can initiate causal chains not fully determined by prior events or laws of nature. Unlike mere event causation, where one event mechanically produces another, agent causation holds that persons are genuine originating causes of their actions.

Causal determinism is the thesis that the state of the universe at any given moment, together with the laws of nature, uniquely determines every subsequent state. In its Laplacean form, if a hypothetical intelligence knew every particle's position and momentum, it could predict the entire future of the universe, including every human decision.

Causality is the relation between events in which one event (the cause) brings about or necessitates another (the effect), a concept fundamental to scientific explanation, moral responsibility, and everyday reasoning.

Compatibilism is the philosophical position that determinism and free will are compatible. Free will, on this view, requires not the ability to have done otherwise in a strict causal sense, but the ability to act in accordance with one's own reasons and rational deliberation, unimpeded by external constraint.

In Hume's philosophy, constant conjunction refers to the regular succession of two types of events where one is always followed by the other. In his regularity theory, this repeated pattern of observed co-occurrence is all that causation amounts to, with no deeper necessary connection between cause and effect.