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Frankfurt's hierarchical mesh theory holds that responsib... — Carmelics

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Challenges→A person who acts under hypnosis, brainwashing, or genuinely irresistible urges may not be morally responsible for her behavior.

Frankfurt's hierarchical mesh theory holds that responsibility depends on whether first-order desires align with second-order volitions, not on the causal history of those desires.

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Reasons For

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Reason for

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1.Responsibility should focus on an agent's reflective endorsement of their desires, not factors beyond their control like genetic or social conditioning.
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2.Two people with identical causal histories but different second-order volitions intuitively differ in responsibility—alignment theory captures this.
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3.Frankfurt's model explains why a coerced person can still be responsible if they endorse their coerced action at the reflective level.
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Reasons Against

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Reason against

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1.Second-order volitions themselves arise from causal histories; ignoring this begs the question about what grounds responsibility.
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2.A manipulated agent could have aligned first and second-order desires while remaining non-responsible—causal history matters fundamentally.
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3.The theory provides no principled explanation of why alignment with second-order volitions grounds responsibility rather than some other criterion.
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Key Terms

Causal history(what the Inheritance View focuses on): The chain of events and causes that led to something happening; in this case, all the things that happened to cause you to have a particular belief.
First-order desires(in philosophy of action and autonomy): What you directly want to do or have right now—like wanting to eat chocolate or wanting to sleep in.
Frankfurt (Harry Frankfurt)(The statement references his specific theory about responsibility): A contemporary American philosopher who developed influential theories about human freedom, responsibility, and what makes us different from animals—particularly focusing on our ability to reflect on our own desires.
Hierarchical mesh theory(as a theory of human agency): Frankfurt's idea that real agency (genuine control over your actions) comes from caring about and identifying with your desires, not just having them.
responsibility(as used in ethics): Being morally accountable for your actions—deserving praise or blame for what you do.
second-order volitions(Augustine's distinction between orders of volition): Acts of the liberum voluntatis arbitrium by which one chooses between conflicting first-order volitions

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Moral Responsibility1 linked

Related

A manipulated agent could have aligned first and second-order desires while rema...A person who acts under hypnosis, brainwashing, or genuinely irresistible urges ...Frankfurt's model explains why a coerced person can still be responsible if they...Responsibility should focus on an agent's reflective endorsement of their desire...

Details

Type: claim
Perspectives: 2 (1 for, 1 against)
Edits: 1 edit

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Second-order volitions themselves arise from causal histories; ignoring this beg...The theory provides no principled explanation of why alignment with second-order...Two people with identical causal histories but different second-order volitions ...