Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T06:30:28.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Free will and probability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Danny Frederick
Danny Frederick*
Affiliation:
aSlate House, Hunstan Lane, Old Leake, Boston, PE22 9RG, UK
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The chance objection to incompatibilist accounts of free action maintains that undetermined actions are not under the agent's control. Some attempts to circumvent this objection locate chance in events posterior to the action. Indeterministic-causation theories locate chance in events prior to the action. However, neither type of response gives an account of free action which avoids the chance objection. Chance must be located at the act of will if actions are to be both undetermined and under the agent's control. This dissolves the apparent paradox of Frankfurt-type cases as well as the chance objection to incompatibilist free will.

Keywords

chanceFrankfurt-type casesfree actionindeterministic causationprobabilitywillings
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , 2013 , pp. 60 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alvarez, M. 2009. Actions, Thought-Experiments and the ‘Principle of Alternate Possibilities’. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 87/1 (2008): 61–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchak, L. 2013. Free Acts and Chance. Philosophical Quarterly, 63(250): 20–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, R. 2003. Libertarian Accounts of Free Will, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. 1963. Actions, Reasons, and Causes. In his 1982CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. 1973. Freedom to Act. In his 1982Google Scholar
Davidson, D. 1976. Hempel on Explaining Action. In his 1982CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. 1978. Intending. In his 1982CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. 1982. Essays on Actions and Events, reprinted with corrections, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Descartes, R. 1649. “The Passions of the Soul”. In Philosophical Works, trans. E.S. Haldane and G.R.T. Ross, corrected edition Vol. 1, New York: Cambridge University Press (1931).Google Scholar
Ekstrom, L. 2000. Free Will: A Philosophical Study, Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Feyerabend, P. 1960. “On the Interpretation of Scientific Theories”. In his Realism, Rationalism and Scientific Method, New York: Cambridge University Press (1981).Google Scholar
Findlay, J. 1962. “The Teaching of Meaning”. In his Ascent to the Absolute, London: George Allen & Unwin (1970).Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, P. 1961. “Voluntary and Involuntary Acts”. In The Philosophy of Action, corrected edition, Edited by: White, A. R. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1970).Google Scholar
Frankfurt, H. 1969. Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility. Journal of Philosophy, 66(23): 829–839.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederick, D. 2010a. Popper and Free Will. Studia Philosophica Estonica, 3(1): 21–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederick, D. 2010b. Unmotivated Intentional Action. Philosophical Frontiers, 5(1): 21–30.Google Scholar
Frederick, D. 2012. Critique of an Argument for the Reality of Purpose. Prolegomena: Journal of Philosophy, 11(1): 25–34.Google Scholar
Frederick, D. 2013. Popper, Rationality and the Possibility of Social Science. THEORIA: An International Journal for the Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 28(1): 61–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchcock, C. 2010. “Probabilistic Causation”. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010 Edition)Edited by: Zalta, E. N. Downloaded on 28 September 2010 from: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2010/entries/causation-probabilistic/Google Scholar
Hornsby, J. 1980. Actions, Boston, MA: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Kane, R. 2007. “Libertarianism”. In Four Views on Free Will, Edited by: Fischer, J. M., Kane, R., Pereboom, D. and Vargas, M. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kant, I. 1788. The Critique of Practical Reason, trans. T.K. AbbotLondon: Longmans, Green & co. (1898).Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. 1974. “Second Thoughts on Paradigms”. In his The Essential Tension, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1977).Google Scholar
McCann, H. 1974. Trying, Paralysis and Volition. In his 1998Google Scholar
McCann, H. 1975. Trying, Paralysis and Volition. In his 1998Google Scholar
McCann, H. 1998. The Works of Agency, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mele, A. 1995. Autonomous Agents, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mele, A. 2001. “Acting Intentionally: Probing Folk Notions”. In histentions and intentionality, Edited by: Malle, B. F., Moses, L. J. and Baldwin, D. A. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Mele, A. 2003. Motivation and Agency, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, R. 1981. Philosophical Explanations, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pollard, B. 2005. The Rationality of Habitual Actions. Proceedings of the Durham-Bergen Postgraduate Philosophy Seminar, 1: 39–50.Google Scholar
Pollard, B. 2006. Explaining Actions with Habits. American Philosophical Quarterly, 43(1): 57–68.Google Scholar
Popper, K. 1959. The Logic of Scientific Discovery, New York: Routledge (2002).Google Scholar
Popper, K. 1973. “Indeterminism is not Enough”. In The Open Universe, New York: Routledge (1988).Google Scholar
Popper, K. 1994. Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem, New York: Routledge (1996).Google Scholar
Popper, K. and Eccles, J. 1977. The Self and its Brain, Boston, MA: Routledge and Kegan Paul (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, B. 1910. “The Elements of Ethics”. In his Philosophical Essays, New York: Longmans, Green & Co.Google Scholar
Shabo, S. 2011. Why Free Will Remains a Mystery. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 92(1): 105–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steward, H. 2008. Moral Responsibility and the Irrelevance of Physics. Journal of Ethics, 12(2): 129–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steward, H. 2009. Fairness, Agency and the Flicker of Freedom. Nous, 43(1): 64–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Inwagen, P. 2000. “Free Will Remains a Mystery”. In The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, Edited by: Kane, R. New York: Oxford University Press (2002).Google Scholar