The Incoherence of Compatibilist Free Will and the Epistemology of Temporal Determinism

This paper presents a formal theorem proving the structural incoherence of Counterfactual Freedom (CFF)—the ability to have done otherwise—within any causally and temporally consistent epistemic framework. Building upon established work in prediction and self-reference paradoxes (e.g., Newcomb's Problem), we introduce the Fixed-Point Paradox (FPP): an embedded agent cannot possess both epistemic access (\Box_k E) to a future action and the modal power of CFF (\Diamond_m \neg E) to alter it without generating a deductive logical contradiction. Importantly, the argument grounds the FPP in fundamental limits of computability theory and informational closure, demonstrating CFF to be a formally uncomputable property for any self-referential system. This structural constraint leads to the Axiomatic Opacity Constraint, eliminating all theories that require CFF. By proving that CFF is either unverifiable or contradictory, the paper uses a Closure Theorem to reduce the free will debate to a single, coherent descriptive model: the compatibilist framework of measurable, computable reason-responsiveness (\rho-metric). This clarifies that the remaining philosophical disagreement is solely a semantic dispute over the labeling of this coherent model as 'freedom'. The result vindicates Aristotle's ancient intuition with the formal rigor of modern modal logic and theoretical physics.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2025-10-31
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17534027
Primary Topic
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

The Incoherence of Compatibilist Free Will and the Epistemology of Temporal Determinism

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
article

The Incoherence of Compatibilist Free Will and the Epistemology of Temporal Determinism

article en

Abstract

This paper presents a formal theorem proving the structural incoherence of Counterfactual Freedom (CFF)—the ability to have done otherwise—within any causally and temporally consistent epistemic framework. Building upon established work in prediction and self-reference paradoxes (e.g., Newcomb's Problem), we introduce the Fixed-Point Paradox (FPP): an embedded agent cannot possess both epistemic access (\Box_k E) to a future action and the modal power of CFF (\Diamond_m \neg E) to alter it without generating a deductive logical contradiction. Importantly, the argument grounds the FPP in fundamental limits of computability theory and informational closure, demonstrating CFF to be a formally uncomputable property for any self-referential system. This structural constraint leads to the Axiomatic Opacity Constraint, eliminating all theories that require CFF. By proving that CFF is either unverifiable or contradictory, the paper uses a Closure Theorem to reduce the free will debate to a single, coherent descriptive model: the compatibilist framework of measurable, computable reason-responsiveness (\rho-metric). This clarifies that the remaining philosophical disagreement is solely a semantic dispute over the labeling of this coherent model as 'freedom'. The result vindicates Aristotle's ancient intuition with the formal rigor of modern modal logic and theoretical physics.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Golden West College (US)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 40%
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
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