If agent causation is coherent, a negatively free will can cause action through irreducibly particular causal agency, undermining Premise 2's universality requirement and severing the path to autonomy.

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1 reason against

Reasons For

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Reason for

1.Agent causation allows particular agents to initiate causal chains without universal laws determining outcomes, enabling genuine alternative possibilities.
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2.Negatively free will (absence of constraint) paired with agent causation permits autonomous action that escapes deterministic universality requirements.
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3.If all causation must obey universal laws, no agent can be the ultimate originator of action, making autonomy metaphysically impossible.
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Reasons Against

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Reason against

1.Agent causation without universal principles is indistinguishable from random causal ruptures, undermining rational agency and intelligible action.
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2.Negatively free will alone (mere absence of constraint) requires positive capacities to constitute autonomy; agent causation doesn't necessarily provide these.
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3.Autonomy historically requires coherent integration with reasons and values, which presupposes the universal causal principles the argument rejects.
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Key Terms

Agent causation(Emphasized in Aquinas's later work, per Montagnes): The active transmission of properties from God to creatures.
Irreducibly particular causal agency(as used in metaphysics and philosophy of action): A specific person's ability to cause action in a way that can't be broken down into or explained by more basic physical laws or universal rules.
Negatively free will(as used in philosophy of free will): Freedom defined as the absence of constraints or obstacles preventing you from acting—basically, nothing is stopping you from doing what you want.
Premise: A premise is a statement or fact that you assume to be true as a starting point for reasoning or making an argument. Think of it as the foundation or building block you use to reach a conclusion—for example, "All dogs are animals" and "My pet is a dog" are premises that lead to the conclusion "My pet is an animal." Premises are essentially the evidence or claims you offer before drawing a final conclusion.
Universality requirement(as used in metaphysics and logic): The demand that a rule or principle must apply equally to all cases, with no special exceptions.
autonomy(Used to ground worker rights to self-governance in the workplace): The right to freely determine one's own actions
coherent(de Finetti's usage in the context of the Dutch Book argument for probabilism): A subject is coherent if their unconditional degrees of belief do not permit a Dutch Book (a guaranteed loss through a combination of bets) to be made against them

Connections

2 topics

Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linked Rights & Liberty1 linked

Agent causation allows particular agents to initiate causal chains without unive...Agent causation without universal principles is indistinguishable from random ca...

Details

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