Making oneself does not require being the cause of one's entire self from nothing, but rather being the first cause of choices that produce self-forming actions over the course of one's life
(Philosophical definition of causation requiring both sufficiency and necessity of the cause relative to its effect)
An event or state of things such that (a) if it happens or exists, the effect must happen or exist even if no further conditions are fulfilled, and (b) the effect cannot happen or exist unless the cause happens or exists.
self-forming actions(Kane's concept of actions that constitute genuine exercises of ultimate responsibility)
Actions caused by choices for which the agent is the first cause, which in turn produce changes in the agent's character or self over time
The defense attorney (or philosopher) is defending premise (2) by arguing for a certain interpretation of premise (1)—that our responsibility for our actions requires that we have “made ourselves” in the sense that, over the course of our lives, we have frequently been the first cause of the choices that result in actions and thus eventually (albeit often in ways we can neither predict nor control) to changes in our selves. In arguing this way, he has shifted the focus of the argument from the o