__________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ Problems of Philosophy Handout #10 Free Will – Part II Consider the following four accounts – and see if you can come up with problems that each of these accounts face: (1) A Roughly Liberatarian Account – you have free will if and only if your will causes your actions and your will was not caused by anything outside of you: (2) A Desire Based Account – You have free will if and only if your actions are caused by your desires. (3) A Frankfurt-Style Account – You have free will if and only if your first order desires are in line with your second order desires, which are in line with your third order desires, etc. (4) A Kantian- Style Account – you have free will if and only if your actions are caused by your will and you grasp the true and the good. (5) A Nahmias – Style Account – you have free will if and only if your actions properly derive from decisions or intentions that you have at some point consciously considered, or at least that you would accept, as your reasons for acting. Some other issues to think about in connection with free will: - The connection between free will, predictability and rational action - The connection between free will and moral responsibility - The connection between free will and religion - The connection between free will and the ethics of biomedical research - The connection between free will and the ethics of sweatshops, etc.MIT OpenCourseWarehttp://ocw.mit.edu 24.00 Problems in Philosophy Fall 2010 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use, visit: