Week 7: Freedom and Responsibility

Essay question

If we lacked free will, could we be morally responsible for anything?

Key readings

• Ayer, A. J ., Freedom and Necessity, in Philosophical Essays, London: Macmillan, 1954, ch. 12.
• Eshleman, Andrew, Moral Responsibility, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer, 2014.
• Frankfurt, Harry, The Importance of What We Care about, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, chs. 1-2.
• Pereboom, Derk, Determinism al dente, Noûs, vol. 29, no. 1 (March, 1995), pp. 21-45.

Further reading

• Arpaly, Nomy & Timothy Schroeder, Praise, Blame and the Whole Self, Philosophical Studies, vol. 93, no. 2 (February, 1999), pp. 161-188.
• Enoch, David & Andrei Marmor, The Case against Moral Luck, Law and Philosophy, vol. 26, no. 4 (July, 2008), pp. 405-436.
• Fischer, J. M., Free Will and Moral Responsibility, in David Copp (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, ch. 12.
• Nagel, Thomas, Moral Luck, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supplementary vol. 50 (1976), pp. 137-151.
• Strawson, Peter, Freedom and Resentment, in Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays, London: Methuen, 1974, ch. 1.
• Van Inwagen, Peter, The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism, Philosophical Studies, vol. 27, no. 3 (March, 1975), pp. 185-199.
• Wolf, Susan, Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility, in Ferdinand David Schoeman (ed.), Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions: New Essays in Moral Psychology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, ch. 3.

Exam questions

• ‘If an action is undetermined, then its occurrence is a matter of luck. It cannot, therefore, be a free and responsible action’. Discuss.
• Is it ever appropriate to blame someone for an involuntary failing?
• Are a reckless driver who runs over a child and an equally reckless driver who does not run over a child equally blameworthy?