The Stoics on Determinism and Compatibilism

Book excerpt: The Stoics on Determinism and Compatibilism is an important book which reconstructs the arguments deployed by the Stoics in favour of the view that everything is necessary and examines the development of the different arguments given by the Stoics that this is compatible with moral responsibility and desert. The book carefully distinguishes two separate theses in Stoic theory, that everything that happens and is the case has a cause and that causation is necessitating. The book also provides a new reconstruction of Stoic compatibilism distinguishing four different compatibilist theories. Salles has written a book which is non-technical in it's approach and which assesses the Stoic positions on determinism, compatibilism, freedom and responsibility in the light of the modern debate on this issue. Covering not just the ancient debates and thinkers such as Epictetus and Chrysippus but also examining the compatibilist views of the major modern theorist Harry Frankfurt, finding indications of his main intuitions already present in the Stoic arguments and tackling the positions of Suzanne Bobzien.