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Four Views on Free Will Great Debates in Philosophy Series Editor: Ernest Sosa great debates Haldane & Smart in philosophy series editor ernest sosa ‘Smart and Haldane are both remarkable philosophers. Each in his own way possesses the rare combination of formidable dialectical skills, an original vision for philosophy, and immense Atheism personal integrity...I do not see how anyone could read this book and not feel that it represents the finest kind of intellectual encounter.’ Hilary Putnam, Harvard University ‘Philosophers of both theistic and atheistic persuasions will find this important new debate on theism particularly interesting for themselves and for their students. Haldane and Smart show that the dispute over the existence of God is very much alive among the best philosophers at the end of the twentieth century.’ Linda Zagzebski, University of Oklahoma john martin fischer, robert kane, The issue of whether or not there is a God is one of the oldest and most widely disputed derk pereboom, and manuel vargas philosophical questions. It is a debate that spreads far across the range of philosophical questions about the status of science, the nature of mind, the character of good and evil, the epistemology of experience and testimony, and so on. In this book two philosophers, each committed to unambiguous versions of belief and disbelief, debate the central issues of atheism and theism. & four Smart opens the debate by arguing that theism is philosophically untenable and seeks to explain metaphysical truth in the light of total science. Haldane continues the discussion by affirming Theism that the existence of the world, and the possibility of our coming to have knowledge of it, depend upon the existence of a creating, sustaining, personal God. This is followed by replies, where each philosopher has the chance to respond and to defend his position. This second edition contains views on new essays by each philosopher, responding to criticisms and building on their previous work. J. J. C. Smart is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. He is the author of many books, including Philosophy and Scientific Realism, Ethics, Persuasion and Truth and free will (with Bernard Williams) Utilitarianism: For and Against. J. J. Haldane is Professor of Philosophy in the University of St Andrews and Director of the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs. He recently held the Royden Davis Chair in Humanities at Georgetown University. He has published widely in metaphysics, philosophy of mind and social philosophy. He is co-editor of several volumes and author of The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Religion (2003). Edition Edition Second Second Cover illustration: Raphael, Studies of the heads and hands of two Apostles, black chalk. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates Printed in the United Kingdom Visit our website at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com FFisher_Fourisher_Four VViewsiews oonn FFreeree Will.i2Will.i2 2 224/11/064/11/06 16:42:3116:42:31 Four Views on Free Will Great Debates in Philosophy Series Editor: Ernest Sosa Dialogue has always been a powerful means of philosophical explora- tion and exposition. By presenting important current issues in philos- ophy in the form of a debate, this series attempts to capture the fl avor of philosophical argument and to convey the excitement generated by the exchange of ideas. Each author contributes a major, original essay. When these essays have been completed, the authors are each given the opportunity to respond to the opposing view. Personal Identity Sydney Shoemaker and Richard Swinburne Consciousness and Causality D. M. Armstrong and Norman Malcolm Critical Theory David Couzens Hoy and Thomas McCarthy Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivity Gilbert Harman and Judith Jarvis Thomson Atheism and Theism, Second Edition J. J. C. Smart and J. J. Haldane Three Methods of Ethics Marcia W. Baron, Philip Pettit, and Michael Slote Epistemic Justifi cation Laurence BonJour and Ernest Sosa Four Views on Free Will John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, Derk Pereboom, and Manuel Vargas Four Views on Free Will John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, Derk Pereboom, and Manuel Vargas © 2007 by John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, Derk Pereboom, and Manuel Vargas blackwell publishing 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148–5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ , UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, Derk Pereboom, and Manuel Vargas to be identifi ed as the Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2007 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Four views on free will / John Martin Fischer . [et al.]. p. cm. — (Great debates in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-3485-9 (hardback) ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-3486-6 (pbk.) 1. Free will and determinism. I. Fischer, John Martin, 1952– BJ1461.F68 2007 123′.5—dc22 2006026270 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10 on 12.5 pt Caslon by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd, Hong Kong Printed and bound in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com Contents Notes on Contributors vi Acknowledgments viii A Brief Introduction to Some Terms and Concepts 1 1 Libertarianism 5 Robert Kane 2 Compatibilism 44 John Martin Fischer 3 Hard Incompatibilism 85 Derk Pereboom 4 Revisionism 126 Manuel Vargas 5 Response to Fischer, Pereboom, and Vargas 166 Robert Kane 6 Response to Kane, Pereboom, and Vargas 184 John Martin Fischer 7 Response to Kane, Fischer, and Vargas 191 Derk Pereboom 8 Response to Kane, Fischer, and Pereboom 204 Manuel Vargas Bibliography 220 Index 224 Notes on Contributors John Martin Fischer is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, where he holds a UC President’s Chair. He is the author of The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control (Blackwell, 1994); and, with Mark Ravizza, S.J., Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility (1998). His collection of essays, My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility, was published in 2006. Robert Kane is University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of seven books and over sixty articles on the philosophy of mind and action, ethics, the theory of value and philosophy of religion, including Free Will and Values (1985), Through the Moral Maze: Searching for Absolute Values in a Pluralistic World (1994), The Signifi cance of Free Will (1996), A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will (2005), and a lecture series on audio and video tape entitled The Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience. He is editor of The Oxford Handbook of Free Will (2002) and of Free Will (Blackwell, 2002). The recipi- ent of fi fteen major teaching awards at the University of Texas, he was named an inaugural member of the University’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 1995. Derk Pereboom is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont. He will join the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University in 2007. His book Living Without Free Will appeared in 2001, and he has published articles on free will, philosophy of mind, history of modern philosophy, and philos- ophy of religion. Notes on Contributors vii Manuel Vargas is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco. The author of various articles in ethics, philosophy of action, and Latin American philosophy, he has been awarded the American Philosophical Association’s Prize in Latin American Thought (2004), and the N.E.H. Chair in the Humanities at the University of San Francisco (2005–2006). Acknowledgments JMF: I’d like to thank Neal A. Tognazzini and John T. Maier for their helpful comments on my essay. DP: Thanks from me to Manuel Vargas, Robert Kane, John Fischer, Seth Shabo, David Christensen, and Sarah Adler. MV: Thanks to the other authors, and also to Eddy Nahmias, Shaun Nichols, and Dan Speak for very helpful feedback on my contributions to this book. Thanks to Neal Tognazzini for the index. Thanks also to Stephanie for lots of things. RK: Thanks to the other three authors for their cogent comments, and to Manuel for his diligent organizational efforts. A Brief Introduction to Some Terms and Concepts Basic Terms: Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Determinism Perhaps the three most important concepts in philosophical work on free will are free will, moral responsibility, and determinism. The notion of freedom at stake in philosophical discussions is usually distinguished from a variety of other freedom concepts, including things like religious and political freedom. Usually, free will is also treated as distinct from several other concepts associated with human agency, such as autonomy and authenticity. As we will see in the chapters that follow, there are many different ways of thinking about the nature of free will, and there are serious disagreements about what would constitute an ad- equate theory of free will. Much of the tradition has taken “free will” to be a kind of power or ability to make decisions of the sort for which one can be morally responsible, but philosophers have also sometimes thought that free will might be required for a range of other things, including moral value, originality, and self-governance.
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