EleutherIA — Defined term

Modern Incompatibilist Readings of Ancient Arguments

Modern analytical category

Modern incompatibilist readings group several ancient arguments against universal fate, but no ancient school used this label. Carneades, as reported by Cicero, argues that voluntary motion need not have an external antecedent cause without being uncaused in every respect. Alexander argues that Stoic fate undermines what depends on us, yet Sharples stresses that calling the agent a starting point does not solve the causal dilemma. Lucretius and Cicero connect the Epicurean swerve with escape from necessity; no surviving text of Epicurus makes it a complete theory of free agency.

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