Abstract

Let us assume that human behavior is subject to laws of nature. These are either deterministic or indeterministic. Prima facie in both cases our behavior appears to be excused. For it seems as if, in the case of deterministic laws, we cannot behave differently than we actually do. In the case of indeterministic laws, it seems as if we are not the originators of this behavior, because how we behave depends on chance. There is a tension between the scientific characterization of the world on the one hand and the characterization of people who are responsible for their behaviour on the other. The book examines how the answer to the question of whether people are responsible for their behavior depends on what is meant by determinism, causality, laws of nature and (perhaps somewhat surprisingly) reduction.