ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some of the philosophers and issues that have been important in the contemporary discussion of the implications of determinism, starting with the father of analytic philosophy, G. E. Moore, and moving more or less forward in time to the most important work of the last few months, Ted Honderich's monumental A Theory of Determinism: The Mind, Neuroscience, and Life-Hopes. One of the ways in which one can try to understand the idea of determinism is through the notion of possible worlds. Sir Karl Popper is undoubtedly a giant among indeterminists. Roderick Chisholm, however, is not interested in reforming the notion of moral responsibility, so he takes the other path and denies determinism. Ludwig Wittgenstein is not a major player in the debate about determinism as in so much of contemporary philosophy, he lurks in the background as the source of a certain way of doing philosophy, a certain way of looking at language and the world.
