Free Will: Sourcehood and its Alternatives

247 Pages·2012·2.122 MB·English

by  Timpe, Kevin

Free Will
Second edition
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY
Free Will, Kevin Timpe
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Free Will
Second edition
Sourcehood and its Alternatives
KEVIN TIMPE
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 175 Fifth Avenue
London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10010
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
First published 2013
© Kevin Timpe, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Kevin Timpe has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as Author of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury
Academic or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4411-7174-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Timpe, Kevin.
Free will : sourcehood and its alternatives / Kevin Timpe. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-8993-6 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-4642-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) --
ISBN 978-1-4411-7174-0 (ebook pdf : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-9735-1 (ebook epub :
alk. paper) 1. Free will and determinism. I. Title.
BJ1461.T48 2012
123'.5--dc23
2012015689
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
For A, J, and E;
I will fight away the darkness. For you.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
PART ONE Introducing the issues
1
1 The basics 3
Introduction 3
Moral responsibility 5
Free will 8
Choices and actions 12
The thesis of causal determinism 13
2 The compatibility question 17
Compatibilism and incompatibilism 17
Kinds of incompatibilism and compatibilism 22
The consequence argument 26
3 Revisionist accounts 32
Moving beyond compatibilism and incompatibilism 32
Ted Honderich 32
Manuel Vargas 37
The moral of the story 46
Conclusion 49
4 Free will skepticism 51
Introduction 51
Free will affirmation 52
Free will skepticism 58
Evaluating free will skepticism 62
viii CONTENTS
PART TWO Alternative possibilities
67
5 The debate over the ability to do otherwise 69
Introduction 69
The core argument and alternative possibilities 69
Compatibilism and alternative possibilities 71
Incompatibilism and alternative possibilities 79
6 The dilemma defense 81
Introduction 81
The dilemma posed 82
Rebutting the dilemma 85
Compatibilist rejoinders 95
Agential focus 98
7 Flickers of freedom 101
Introduction 101
The flicker strategy 101
Dialectical considerations 113
Pointing towards sourcehood 116
PART THREE The importance of sourcehood
117
8 Sourcehood and compatibilism 119
Moving from alternatives to sourcehood 119
Two compatibilist accounts of sourcehood 122
Manipulation arguments 133
9 Sourcehood, incompatibilism, and alternatives 141
Source incompatibilism 141
Incompatibilism without AP 147
The relation between sourcehood and alternatives 158
CONTENTS ix
10 Incompatibilism and luck 162
Taking stock 162
The luck objection 163
The real problem with luck 170
For further reading 177
Notes 179
Bibliography 215
Index 229