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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Rational agents are free in a negative sense insofar as a... — Carmelics
    Home/Rights & Liberty
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Rational agents are free in a negative sense insofar as any practical matter is at issue.

    Free Will & ForeknowledgeRights & Liberty
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.A will that cannot exercise itself except under the Idea of its freedom is practically free.
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    • 2.Rational agency can only operate by seeking to be the first cause of its actions.
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    • 3.Once the set of prescriptions binding an autonomous free will is established, rational agents hold themselves to that same set of prescriptions in practical matters.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Causal determinism, if true, entails that all mental events including rational deliberation are fully determined by prior causes.
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    • 2.A will whose operations are themselves causally necessitated is not free in any meaningful negative sense, even if it operates 'under the idea' of freedom.
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    • 3.Kant's transcendental idealism cannot resolve this tension without invoking a noumenal realm that is epistemically inaccessible and thus practically inert.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Frankfurt-style cases demonstrate that an agent can act freely and rationally even when alternative possibilities are unavailable, undermining the negative freedom condition.
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    • 2.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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    Topics

    Rights & LibertyFree Will & Foreknowledge

    Connections

    2 topics

    Moral Responsibility2 linkedVirtue Ethics1 linked

    Related

    A will that cannot exercise itself except under the Idea of its freedom is pract...A will whose operations are themselves causally necessitated is not free in any ...Causal determinism, if true, entails that all mental events including rational d...Frankfurt-style cases demonstrate that an agent can act freely and rationally ev...
    +4 moreShow less
    If rational agency requires only the capacity to act on second-order volitions r...Kant's transcendental idealism cannot resolve this tension without invoking a no...Once the set of prescriptions binding an autonomous free will is established, ra...

    Similar

    Deterministically caused actions are not free, even when the agent has...81%An action is free when the agent has a powerful desire to perform it, ...79%Actions caused by factors outside the agent's control are not free78%A will free in the negative sense must be physically and psychological...77%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: kant-moral
    View source passageHide passage
    Kant says that a will that cannot exercise itself except under the Idea of its freedom is free from a practical point of view (im practischer Absicht). In saying such wills are free from a practical point of view, he is saying that in engaging in practical endeavors — trying to decide what to do, what to hold oneself and others responsible for, and so on — one is justified in holding oneself to all of the principles to which one would be justified in holding wills that are autonomous free wills.
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Rational agency can only operate by seeking to be the first cause of its actions...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit