An Essay on Free Will
E726002
An Essay on Free Will is a highly influential philosophical work by Peter van Inwagen that rigorously defends incompatibilism and examines the relationship between free will, determinism, and moral responsibility.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| An Essay on Free Will canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8332888 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay on Free Will Context triple: [Peter van Inwagen, notableWork, An Essay on Free Will]
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A.
On the Freedom of the Will
On the Freedom of the Will is a philosophical treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that critically examines the nature of human freedom, moral responsibility, and determinism.
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B.
On Free Choice of the Will
On Free Choice of the Will is a philosophical and theological treatise by St. Augustine that explores human freedom, moral responsibility, and the problem of evil in relation to divine justice.
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C.
The Freedom of the Will
The Freedom of the Will is an influential 18th-century theological and philosophical treatise by Jonathan Edwards that rigorously defends a compatibilist view of human freedom and divine sovereignty.
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D.
Ninth Treatise on Free Will
The Ninth Treatise on Free Will is a section of Saadia Gaon's philosophical work "Emunot ve-Deot" that systematically explores human freedom, moral responsibility, and divine foreknowledge within Jewish thought.
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E.
Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting
Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting is a philosophical book by Daniel Dennett that defends a compatibilist account of free will by examining which kinds of freedom are meaningful and desirable in human life.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay on Free Will Target entity description: An Essay on Free Will is a highly influential philosophical work by Peter van Inwagen that rigorously defends incompatibilism and examines the relationship between free will, determinism, and moral responsibility.
-
A.
On the Freedom of the Will
On the Freedom of the Will is a philosophical treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that critically examines the nature of human freedom, moral responsibility, and determinism.
-
B.
On Free Choice of the Will
On Free Choice of the Will is a philosophical and theological treatise by St. Augustine that explores human freedom, moral responsibility, and the problem of evil in relation to divine justice.
-
C.
The Freedom of the Will
The Freedom of the Will is an influential 18th-century theological and philosophical treatise by Jonathan Edwards that rigorously defends a compatibilist view of human freedom and divine sovereignty.
-
D.
Ninth Treatise on Free Will
The Ninth Treatise on Free Will is a section of Saadia Gaon's philosophical work "Emunot ve-Deot" that systematically explores human freedom, moral responsibility, and divine foreknowledge within Jewish thought.
-
E.
Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting
Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting is a philosophical book by Daniel Dennett that defends a compatibilist account of free will by examining which kinds of freedom are meaningful and desirable in human life.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (41)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | book ⓘ |
| academicDiscipline | philosophy ⓘ |
| arguesAgainst | compatibilism ⓘ |
| author | Peter van Inwagen ⓘ |
| citedBy | numerous works in contemporary free will debates ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| examines |
consequences of determinism for moral responsibility
ⓘ
relationship between free will and determinism ⓘ relationship between free will and moral responsibility ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
metaphysics ⓘ philosophy of action ⓘ |
| genre | analytic philosophy monograph ⓘ |
| hasInfluenced |
contemporary debates on free will and determinism
ⓘ
philosophical discussions of moral responsibility ⓘ |
| hasPart |
analysis of moral responsibility under determinism
ⓘ
arguments for incompatibilism ⓘ critical discussion of compatibilist theories ⓘ discussion of the consequence argument ⓘ |
| hasReception | widely discussed in academic literature on free will ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
ability to do otherwise
ⓘ
causal determinism ⓘ compatibilism vs incompatibilism ⓘ moral blame and praise ⓘ problem of free will and determinism ⓘ |
| isConsidered | highly influential in free will literature ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
determinism
ⓘ
free will ⓘ moral responsibility ⓘ |
| notableFor |
influence on late 20th-century analytic philosophy of free will
ⓘ
rigorous defense of incompatibilism ⓘ systematic analysis of free will and determinism ⓘ |
| philosophicalPositionDefended | incompatibilism ⓘ |
| philosophicalSubdiscipline | philosophy of free will ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1983 ⓘ |
| publisher | Oxford University Press ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
advanced students of philosophy
ⓘ
professional philosophers ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 20th century philosophy ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: An Essay on Free Will Description of subject: An Essay on Free Will is a highly influential philosophical work by Peter van Inwagen that rigorously defends incompatibilism and examines the relationship between free will, determinism, and moral responsibility.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.