Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities

Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities
Author: Michael McKenna
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2018-01-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351777513

This book was published in 2003. This book explores an important issue within the free will debate: the relation between free will and moral responsibility. In his seminal article "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility", Harry Frankfurt launched a vigorous attack on the standard conception of that relation, questioning the claim that a person is morally responsible for what she has done only if she could have done otherwise. Since then, Frankfurt's thesis has been at the center of philosophical discussions on free will and moral responsibility. "Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities", edited by David Widerker and Michael McKenna, draws together the most recent work on Frankfurt's thesis by leading theorists in the area of free will and responsibility. As the majority of the essays appear here for the first time, "Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities" offers the newest developments in this important debate.

Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities

Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities
Author: David Widerker
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2006
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780754656982

This book explores an important issue within the free will debate: the relation between free will and moral responsibility. In his seminal article Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility, Harry Frankfurt launched a vigorous attack on the standard conception of that relation, questioning the claim that a person is morally responsible for what she has done only if she could have done otherwise. Since then, Frankfurt's thesis has been at the center of philosophical discussions on free will and moral responsibility.Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities, edited by David Widerker and Michael McKenna, draws together the most recent work on Frankfurt's thesis by leading theorists in the area of free will and responsibility. As the majority of the essays appear here for the first time, Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities offers the newest developments in this important debate.

Free Will

Free Will
Author: Kevin Timpe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2008-07-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1441115048

Much contemporary scholarship on free will focuses on whether it is compatible with causal determinism. According to compatibilists, it is possible for an agent to be determined in all her choices and actions and still be free. Incompatibilists, on the other hand, think that the existence of free will is incompatible with the truth of determinism. There are two dominant general conceptions of the nature of free will. According to the first of these, free will is primarily a function of being able to do otherwise than one in fact does. On this view, free will centrally depends upon alternative possibilities. The second approach focuses instead on issues of sourcehood, holding that free will is primarily a function of an agent being the source of her actions in a particular way. This book demarcates these two different conceptions free will, explores the relationship between them, and examines how they relate to the debate between compatibilists and incompatibilists. It ultimately argues for a version of Source Incompatibilism.

Perspectives on Moral Responsibility

Perspectives on Moral Responsibility
Author: John Martin Fischer
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1501721569

Explores aspects of responsibility, including moral accountability; hierarchy, rationality, and the real self; and ethical responsibility and alternative possibilities.

My Way

My Way
Author: John Martin Fischer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2006-03-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0195179552

A collection of John Martin Fischer's essays on free will and moral responsibility. Fischer's overall framework contains an argument for the contention that moral responsibility does not require free will in the sense that implies alternative possibilities and a sketch of a comprehensive theory of moral responsibility.

Hard Luck

Hard Luck
Author: Neil Levy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2011-06-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199601380

The concept of luck plays an important role in debates concerning free will and moral responsibility. Neil Levy presents an original account of luck and argues that it undermines our freedom and moral responsibility no matter whether determinism is true or not.

Responsibility and Control

Responsibility and Control
Author: John Martin Fischer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 1999-10-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1316583759

This book provides a comprehensive, systematic theory of moral responsibility. The authors explore the conditions under which individuals are morally responsible for actions, omissions, consequences, and emotions. The leading idea in the book is that moral responsibility is based on 'guidance control'. This control has two components: the mechanism that issues in the relevant behavior must be the agent's own mechanism, and it must be appropriately responsive to reasons. The book develops an account of both components. The authors go on to offer a sustained defense of the thesis that moral responsibility is compatible with causal determinism.

Building Better Beings

Building Better Beings
Author: Manuel Vargas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2013
Genre: Law
ISBN: 019969754X

Manuel Vargas presents a compelling and state-of-the-art defense of moral responsibility in the face of growing philosophical and scientific skepticism about free will and accountability. He shows how we can justify our responsibility practices, and provides a normatively and naturalistically adequate account of agency, blame, and desert.

Living Without Free Will

Living Without Free Will
Author: Derk Pereboom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2006-11-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0521029961

Argues that morality, meaning and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible for our actions.

Our Fate

Our Fate
Author: John Martin Fischer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2016
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199311293

Our Fate collects John Martin Fischer's previously published articles on the relationship between God's foreknowledge and human freedom. The book includes a substantial new introductory essay that puts all of the chapters into a cohesive framework, and presents a bold new account of God's foreknowledge of free actions in a causally indeterministic world.