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    Making an action unavoidable is not the same thing as bri... — Carmelics
    Home/Moral Responsibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Making an action unavoidable is not the same thing as bringing it about that the action is performed.

    Moral Responsibility
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.While determinism may make an agent's action unavoidable, it does not follow that the agent acts as he does only because determinism is true.
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    • 2.It may also be true that the agent acts as he does because he wants to and because he sees reasons in favor of so acting.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.On a Humean regularity or counterfactual dependence account of causation, to bring it about that X occurs just is to be part of the sufficient causal nexus that makes X unavoidable.
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    • 2.If causal production just consists in the relevant counterfactual and nomological dependencies, then making an action unavoidable through those very dependencies is indistinguishable from bringing it about.
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    • 3.Frankfurt's distinction therefore presupposes a non-Humean notion of agent causation that itself stands in need of defense before the claim can do theoretical work.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.If a neuroscientist directly stimulates a brain region such that a bodily movement inevitably follows, she has both made it unavoidable and brought it about.
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    • 2.Frankfurt's distinction collapses in cases of direct physical intervention, revealing that unavoidability and causal production are not categorically distinct.
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    Moral Responsibility

    Related

    Frankfurt's distinction collapses in cases of direct physical intervention, reve...Frankfurt's distinction therefore presupposes a non-Humean notion of agent causa...If a neuroscientist directly stimulates a brain region such that a bodily moveme...If causal production just consists in the relevant counterfactual and nomologica...
    +3 moreShow less
    It may also be true that the agent acts as he does because he wants to and becau...On a Humean regularity or counterfactual dependence account of causation, to bri...While determinism may make an agent's action unavoidable, it does not follow tha...

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    Source

    AI-extracted3/3 agreementValid
    SEP: moral-responsibility
    Frankfurt (2006: 340)
    View source passageHide passage
    In response to criticisms such as the above, Frankfurt has said that his example was intended mainly to draw attention to the fact “that making an action unavoidable is not the same thing as bringing it about that the action is performed” (2006: 340; emphasis in original). In particular, while determinism may make an agent’s action unavoidable, it does not follow that the agent acts as he does only because determinism is true: it may also be true that he acts as he does because he wants to and because he sees reasons in favor of so acting. The point of his original example, Frankfurt suggests,...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The premises are directly stated in the passage as Frankfurt's reasoning to support his claim that making an action unavoidable is not the same as bringing it about, since unavoidability (via determinism) leaves room for the agent's own reasons and desires to be the actual causes of action.

    Confidence: Clearly articulated argument by Frankfurt in response to criticisms.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit