According to Reformed Calvinists, are all of a person's volitional states causally determined by prior causes in time?
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From the Wikipedia article on [Determinism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism) :
> **Determinism is the philosophical view that all events are determined completely by previously existing causes**. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have sprung from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and considerations. The opposite of determinism is some kind of indeterminism (otherwise called nondeterminism) or randomness. Determinism is often contrasted with free will, although some philosophers claim that the two are compatible.
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> **Determinism often is taken to mean *causal determinism*, which in physics is known as cause-and-effect. It is the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality in such a way that any state (of an object or event) is completely determined by prior states**. This meaning can be distinguished from other varieties of determinism mentioned below.
And from the Wikipedia article on [Causality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality#Volition) about the topic of volition:
> **The deterministic world-view holds that the history of the universe can be exhaustively represented as a progression of events following one after as cause and effect**. The [incompatibilist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatibilism) version of this holds that there is no such thing as "[free will](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will) ". [Compatibilism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilism) , on the other hand, holds that determinism is compatible with, or even necessary for, free will.
If we define the *volitional state* of a person as all the contents of their consciousness, their thoughts, emotions, desires, intentions, plans, decisions, tendencies, habits, etc., at a specific point in time, would Reformed Calvinists then say that all *volitional states* of a person are *causally determined* by prior causes in time?
More formally, if we define
- V(*p*,*t*) as the volitional state of person *p* at time *t*,
- U(*t*) as the state of the universe at time *t*, and
- *t1* and *t2* as any two different points in time such that *t1* 2*,
would Reformed Calvinists agree that V(*p*, *t2*) is causally determined by U(*t1*) for each person *p* in the universe?
Asked by user50422
Feb 24, 2022, 02:01 PM
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