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In my recent paper Moral Responsibility and Choice I outlined my position that moral responsibility is a result not of actions but of choices. In that paper I deliberately avoided discussing determinism and compatibilism, however I believe the link is clear. One of the key compatibilist arguments is to reframe the Principle of Alternate Possibilities… Continue reading Choice, Moral Responsibility and (In)Compatibilism
Moral Responsibility And Choice Discussion of moral responsibility has traditionally centred around actions and the possibility of alternative actions. In this short paper I take a different approach and focus on choices rather than actions. I argue that a person is morally responsible directly for their choices and only indirectly for resulting actions. This subtle… Continue reading Moral Responsibility And Choice
When I first began studying philosophy seriously, one thing that came as a real surprise was the idea of compatibilism. To me, incompatibilism is intuitive – despite the arguments of Nahmias et al(1). I was, and still am, a “natural incompatibilist”. In an a deterministic universe, we are no different to volcanoes. If Vesuvius was… Continue reading Why I Am An Incompatibilist
It might be useful to start this blog by making explicit two propositions I consider axiomatic in the field of consciousness. These are: 1) Intrinsic qualia exist 2) Contra-causal, causally efficacious free will (‘true free will’) exists I do not consider it necessary to prove these, in fact I consider them impossible to prove or… Continue reading Two Axioms