Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 21, 2004

Pierre-Simon Laplace, who devised his namesake Demon

Free will is the philosophical doctrine that our choices are, ultimately, "up to us." Consequently, an unfree action must be somehow "up to" something else. The phrase "up to us" is vague and, just like free will itself, admits of a variety of interpretations. Determinism holds that each state of affairs is necessitated (determined) by the states of affairs that preceded it. Indeterminism holds that determinism is false, and that there are events which are not entirely determined by previous states of affairs. The idea of determinism is sometimes illustrated by the story of Laplace's demon, who knows all the facts about the past and present and all the natural laws that govern our world, and uses this knowledge to foresee the future, down to every detail. Some philosophers hold that determinism is at odds with free will, a doctrine known as incompatibilism. (more...)

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