4/21/2004 01:11:00 PM|||Andrew|||From his essay: "Advice to Christian Philosophers"

"Philosophy is in large part a clarification, systematization, articulation, relating and deepening of pre-philosophical opinion. We come to philosophy with a range of opinions about the world and humankind and the place of the latter in the former; and in philosophy we think about these matters, systematically articulate our views, put together and relate our views on diverse topics, and deepen our views by finding unexpected interconnections and by discovering and answering unanticipated questions. Of course we may come to change our minds by virtue of philosophical endeavor; we may discover incompatibilities or other infelicities. But we come to philosophy with prephilosophical opinions; we can do no other."

There's also a large section all about determinism, free will, and compatibilism in that essay that's well worth reading. Heck, the whole thing's worth reading, even if you're not a "philosopher" of any kind.|||108257826995753554|||Plantinga