ABSTRACT
Semicompatibilism is a claim about the relationship between various different doctrines, including God’s foreknowledge of human behavior and causal determinism, on the one hand, and moral responsibility, on the other. As regards God’s foreknowledge, semicompatibilism is the view that God’s foreknowledge is compatible with moral responsibility, quite apart from whether God’s foreknowledge rules out freedom to do otherwise. Although semicompatibilism does not take a stand on whether God’s foreknowledge rules out human freedom to do otherwise, it follows from semicompatibilism that God’s foreknowledge would be compatible with moral responsibility, even if it did rule out human freedom to do otherwise. Similarly, as regards causal determinism, semicompatibilism is the view that causal determinism is compatible with moral responsibility, quite apart from whether causal determinism rules out freedom to do otherwise. Again, semicompatibilism does not take a stand on whether causal determinism rules out freedom to do otherwise; it is thus consistent with both classical compatibilism (which, I take it, holds that causal determinism is compatible with freedom to do otherwise) and the rejection of classical compatiblism. A crucial element of the doctrine of semicompatibilism is that the compatibility of causal determinism and moral responsibility does not hinge on the compatibility of causal determinism and freedom to do otherwise. More speci cally, the semicompatibilist holds that causal determinism would be compatible with moral responsibility, even if causal determinism were to rule out freedom to do otherwise.
