Libertarian Free Will and the Physical Indeterminism Luck Objection

Philosophia 50 (1):159-182 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Libertarian free will is, roughly, the view that agents cause actions to occur or not occur: Maddy’s decision to get a beer causes her to get up off her comfortable couch to get a beer, though she almost chose not to get up. Libertarian free will notoriously faces the luck objection, according to which agential states do not determine whether an action occurs or not, so it is beyond the control of the agent, hence lucky, whether an action occurs or not: Maddy’s reasons for getting beer in equipoise with her reasons to remain in her comfortable seat do not determine that she will get up or stay seated, so it seems beyond her control, hence lucky, that she gets up. In this paper I consider a sub-set of the luck objection called the Physical Indeterminism Luck Objection, according to which indeterministic physical processes cause actions to occur or not, and agent’s lack control over these indeterministic physical processes, so agent’s lack control over, hence it is lucky, whether action occurs or not. After motivating the physical indeterminism luck objection, I consider responses from three recent event-causal libertarian models, and conclude that they fail to overcome the problem, though one promising avenue is opened up.

Similar books and articles

Agent causation and the problem of luck.Randolph Clarke - 2005 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 86 (3):408-421.
On the role of indeterminism in libertarian free will.Robert Kane - 2016 - Philosophical Explorations 19 (1):2-16.
Indeterminism, explanation, and luck.Ishtiyaque Haji - 2000 - The Journal of Ethics 4 (3):211-235.
The Disappearing Agent.Filip Čeč - 2017 - In Berčić Boran (ed.), Perspectives on the Self. Rijeka, Croatia: pp. 235-253.
Libertarianism, luck, and action explanation.Ishtiyaque Haji - 2005 - Journal of Philosophical Research 30:321-340.
Why agent-caused actions are not lucky.Meghan Griffith - 2010 - American Philosophical Quarterly 47 (1):43-56.
Libertarian Volition and the Problem of Luck.Maria A. Sekatskaya - 2020 - Epistemology and Philosophy of Science 57 (4):87-106.
Libertarianism, Luck, and Action Explanation.Ishtiyaque Haji - 2005 - Journal of Philosophical Research 30:321-340.
Libertarian Free Will and the Erosion Argument.Gerald Harrison - 2007 - Polish Journal of Philosophy 1 (2):61-75.
Luck and Agent-Causation: A Response to Franklin.Neil Levy - 2015 - Criminal Law and Philosophy 9 (4):779-784.
Luck, Control, and Free Will: Answering Berofsky.Alfred R. Mele - 2015 - Journal of Philosophy 112 (7):337-355.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-04-15

Downloads
994 (#12,150)

6 months
433 (#3,213)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Dwayne Moore
University of Saskatchewan

Citations of this work

A nonreductive physicalist libertarian free will.Dwayne Moore - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life.Derk Pereboom - 2014 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Mortal questions.Thomas Nagel - 1979 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Significance of Free Will.Robert Kane - 1996 - New York, US: Oxford University Press USA.
Living Without Free Will.Derk Pereboom - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 95 references / Add more references