Kant's Argument for the Compatibility of Freedom and Natural Causality
Kant's compatibilism between freedom and natural causality presents a dilemma:what becomes of freedom if natural causality holds,and conversely,what happens to natural causality if freedom is acknowledged?Based on this dilemma,the paper reconstructs the compatibilist argument into two steps:the first argues for the possibility of freedom,rescuing it under the premise of acknowledging natural causality,while the second step removes the threat to natural causality,ensuring it remains undisturbed after rescuing freedom.These steps are both complementary and indispensable.Freedom encompasses both negative and positive aspects,with the latter facing a challenging heterogeneity problem in its possibility argument:can atemporal intelligible causes lead to natural results in time?This issue has already been addressed by many researchers,often in terms of theories of cancellation and transformation.In contrast,I propose the theory of exemplification to better justify the possibility of positive freedom.Its core assertion is that we can conceive imperatives to exemplify positive freedom.Imperatives,as oughts,are atemporal and not determined by natural causes;as well,they can give rise to action in time and effectively illustrate how atemporal causes lead to temporal results.However,many researchers stop at this point,thinking they have achieved their goal by saving freedom,yet fail to recognize that freedom,upon taking its rightful place,in turn threatens natural causality.This raises difficult problems of continuity and necessity.The problem of continuity is:how can the chain of natural causality remain unbroken when freedom clearly interrupts it?For his part,Kant employs a regressive explanation,asserting that the interrupted causal chain can be made continuous through regression.The specific result arises either from a hidden cause or from a common cause.Both cases achieve continuity through regression,with the former tracing back to another cause,while the latter loops back to the same cause.The problem of necessity concerns how free choice(arbitrium liberum)guarantees the inevitability of causality when it can allow natural causes to produce effects different from those that actually occur.Instead of directly generating other results from the same causes,Kant's solution involves free choice selecting other causes.Because the cause chosen by free choice is followed by no further intervention in the natural process,the natural process from this cause to the result proceeds in line with the laws of nature,thereby ensuring the necessity of natural causality.This allows us to justify our claim that natural causality does not negate freedom,and freedom does not hinder natural causality;the two are not in conflict.
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