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    If rational agency requires only the capacity to act on s... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Rational agents are free in a negative sense insofar as any practical matter is at issue.

    If rational agency requires only the capacity to act on second-order volitions rather than the absence of external determination, negative freedom is neither necessary nor sufficient for practical rationality.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Frankfurt's hierarchical model shows agents can be rational by endorsing their desires through reflection, regardless of external causal history.
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    • 2.A compatibilist agent acting on reasoned second-order volitions exhibits the control necessary for practical rationality without requiring libertarian freedom.
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    • 3.External determination doesn't undermine rationality if the agent's deliberative capacities remain intact and responsive to reasons.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Second-order volitions themselves require explanatory grounding; if determined externally, their endorsement is illusory, not genuinely rational.
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    • 2.Practical rationality requires the ability to have done otherwise when deliberating; pure responsiveness to reasons without alternative possibilities is insufficient.
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    • 3.A fully determined agent cannot generate new reasons or revise their evaluative framework, limiting the reflective capacity rationality demands.
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    Key Terms

    External determination(as used in debates about free will)
    When outside forces (other people, circumstances, or physical laws) control your actions instead of you choosing freely.
    necessary and sufficient conditions(in philosophical analysis)
    A 'necessary' condition is something that must be true for something else to happen; a 'sufficient' condition is something that guarantees it will happen. This phrase describes what must be true (and what's enough) for a definition to apply.
    negative freedom(Political philosophy; contrasted implicitly with positive conceptions of freedom)
    A conception of freedom that concentrates on the external sphere in which individuals interact, understood as a domain of sovereign action within which individuals may pursue their own projects, limited only by an obligation to respect the equivalent domains of others.
    practical rationality(Distinguished from theoretical rationality in the context of Pascal's Wager)
    The normative standard requiring an agent to maximize expected utility
    rational agency(Kantian account of autonomy)
    A mode of operation that can only function by seeking to be the first cause of its actions.
    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

    Connections

    2 topics

    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linkedRights & Liberty1 linked

    Related

    A compatibilist agent acting on reasoned second-order volitions exhibits the con...A fully determined agent cannot generate new reasons or revise their evaluative ...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    External determination doesn't undermine rationality if the agent's deliberative...
    Frankfurt's hierarchical model shows agents can be rational by endorsing their d...
    +3 moreShow less
    Practical rationality requires the ability to have done otherwise when deliberat...Rational agents are free in a negative sense insofar as any practical matter is ...Second-order volitions themselves require explanatory grounding; if determined e...