Ben, Patrick Effiong2024-02-202023-10Patrick Effiong Ben (2023) Predeterminism as a category error: Why Aribiah Attoe got it wrong, South African Journal of Philosophy, 42:1, 13-23, DOI: 10.1080/02580136.2023.2211824.0258-0136 (print)2073-4867 (online)10.1080/02580136.2023.2211824http://hdl.handle.net/2263/94763I aim to establish in this article why Aribiah Attoe, like other determinists before him, got it wrong in arguing for the possibility of predeterminism in a materially evolving universe. I will do this by proving two things: I will first establish the inconsistency of the idea of predeterminism in an evolving universe. Then, I argue that the adirectionality presupposed by an evolutionary universe gives room for free will and negates the argument for a predeterministic universe. I aim to achieve the above by exposing why the view which upholds the universe and all existents within it as lacking free will – or the possibility of adirectionality – stems from a category error on the part of the determinists. Lastly, I defend the position that for predeterminism to stand a chance against the free will of animate things-in-the-world, it must deny the possibility of an evolving/expanding universe that is adirectional and suggestive of boundlessness, and the possibility that some events are not fundamentally necessary reactions to previous states of affairs.en© 2023 South African Journal of Philosophy. This is an electronic version of an article published in South African Journal of Philosophy, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 13-23, 2023.doi : https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2023.2211824. South African Journal of Philosophy is available online at : http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsph20.PredeterminismAribiah AttoeAdirectionalityEvolutionFree willPredeterministic historicity (PDH)Postprint Article