Abstract

The idea that only those things can happen that actually do happen seems to be incompatible with the idea that a person can act or decide otherwise than she actually does. If being able to act otherwise is a necessary condition for freedom, freedom and determinism seem to be incompatible. A common compatibilist strategy, which Ansgar Beckermann pursues in his Gehirn, Ich, Freiheit, attempts to reconcile the two ideas by pointing to an ambiguity of the verb »can«: in the first case, »can« is said to express the possibility that some event happens; in the second case, it is taken to express a person’s ability to do something. It is shown that the compatibilist strategy runs into trouble because, albeit »can« does in fact have these two meanings, reference to abilities is of no help in explicating the »principle of alternative possibilities«.