The view that free will and moral responsibility cannot coexist with determinism. Incompatibilists argue that if our actions are determined by prior causes, we cannot be truly free or morally responsible.
From Latin 'in-' (not) and 'compatibilis' (able to coexist). This position crystallized in opposition to compatibilist attempts to reconcile freedom with determinism, with arguments developed by philosophers like van Inwagen and others.
Incompatibilists argue that if everything you do is the inevitable result of the Big Bang plus the laws of nature, then praise and blame make no more sense than praising a calculator for getting math right! This leads either to libertarianism (we have free will, so determinism is false) or hard determinism (determinism is true, so we lack free will).
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