More on compatibilism - the so-called "wussy" position

Well, I found this link that classifies different philosophical views as either wussy or BAD" " and I have one view that is wussy and two views that are BAD" " Look at the bottom of the page on this link. I am a compatibilist, but I also believe in Modal Realism along with Meinongianism. I will explain Modal Realism and Meinongianism in a later post but for now I will try to describe Compatibilism.

I think St. Augustine might have been the original supporter of Compatibilism. Originally, St. Augustine used compatibilism to reconcile God's foreknowledge with human free-will. How could God know about Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden and not be responsible for sin in the world? If God knew the original two people in existence would sin, why did He not prevent them from doing so? Augustine goes on to argue that though God knew Adam and Eve would sin, He is not responsible for their sinning. Now, for free will, Augustine believes that sin has corrupted our ability to choose good and evil (for Augustine evil does not have ontological existence but is actually choosing a lesser good), in fact, all we desire to choose are lesser goods (evil). So though we might have free will, our free will will choose the lesser goods - the greatest good is God. So with compatibilism, free will and determinism are compatible.

Let me explain what true free will is: free will - not being limited by antecedent conditions. Let me explain what an antecedent is; If A then B. "A" is the antecedent. So, if I say, if I work out enough, then I can bench press 500 lbs. If you believe in complete free will your bench pressing 500 lbs has nothing to do with working out - if you believe in free will without antecedent conditions. If I study enough I will get an A on the test, again complete free will believes that current choices are not limited by prior choices so that studying or not studying does not limit your free will with respect to earning an A on your test.

Determinism claims that everything has already been decided. Jonathan Edwards was a theological determinist and believed that once God knew a fact or situation to be true (since God's knowlege could not be false) that fact or situation would have to occur the way that God knew it would occur. Hence, any kind of human or agent in a situation had no choice, because things were already determined according to the way that God saw them (or knew them) to be, before occurring.