---
title: "Compatibilism · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/compatibilism
description: "Compatibilism is the view that free will and determinism can both be true."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Ethics & metaphysics

# Compatibilism

Definition

Compatibilism is the view that free will and determinism can both be true. An action is free if it comes from the agent’s own reasons and desires, even if those were themselves determined.

On this site

The Feels free setting. The experience of choosing is rendered in full, and the mechanism stays hidden.

Role in the model

The Feels free setting is the default because it matches what most people mean by free will when they think about it. The experience of choosing is rendered in full. The inhabitant never sees the mechanism underneath.

Related

[Free will](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/free-will)[Determinism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/determinism)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)