 Let’s turn now to Austin’s discussion of whether determinism is compatible with free action  ((3) above).  One general form of excuse for doing something would be that one couldn’t avoid doing it. Similarly, a general excuse for failing to do something—failing to apply one’s brakes, for example—would be that one couldn’t do it. Excuses of that general type have figured centrally in discussions of human freedom and the bearing of determinism on whether we ever act freely. Suppose that, wherever an excuse of this form is correctly applicable, we are not responsible for the action targeted by the excuse and did not act freely. If this supposition were correct, a demonstration that there are no things that we do that we could have avoided doing, and no things that we do not do that we could have done, would amount to a demonstration that we are never responsible for doing, or refraining from doing, what we do and, so, never act freely. And some philosophers have held that determinism provides the basis for such a demonstration.