Godwin and Grice on determinism and indeterminism

by JLS
for the GC

William Godwin (1756-1836) English philosopher, discussed by J. Harris in "Liberty and necessity: the free will debate in eighteenth-century British philosophy" (Oxford, 2005). His "Free will" came out in 1824. Godwin was an extreme determinist, rejecting the idea of free will: indeed he asserted that the

"assassin can no more help the murder he commits than the dagger can, that he employs." The motives that govern him are irresistible. "The doctrine of necessity does not overturn the nature of things."