Death of a Compatibilistic Intuition
-
Thomas Boysen
Abstract
The common key intuition that freedom is to do what you want to do is very attractive to compatibilistic accounts of freedom. And as a matter of fact this key intuition has been adopted by most compatibilists from Hobbes till now. Unfortunately, it suffers from serious problems. However, thanks to the real self account of freedom – which is a recent compatibilistic theory developed by Harry G. Frankfurt and refined and extended by various philosophers, most notably (perhaps) by Gary Watson – the key intuition is revived. Or what? In this paper I argue (A) that the real self account's rescue of the key intuition does not succeed because (i) Frankfurt's and Watson's versions of the real self account of freedom are flawed and because (ii) the real self account as such is flawed as well. Furthermore I will argue (B) that the key intuition is not to be rescued by any means whatsoever.
© Philosophia Press 2004
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Articles in the same Issue
- More than a Linguistic Turn in Philosophy: the Semiotic Programs of Peirce and Cassirer
- Kant's Metaphysical Exposition. On Philosophical Expositions Considered as Analysis of Given Concepts
- Ett problem för Hares supervenienstes
- Knowledge Promotion as a Criterion for Evaluating Social Institutions
- Om reduktion
- Death of a Compatibilistic Intuition
- Mais sa volonté est libre: Some Motives for Modal Voluntarism
- Hur den moderna vetenskapen löste försokratikernas problem. En kritisk granskning av ett ledmotiv i Erik Stenius bok Tankens gryning
- Arne Johan Vetlesen: Menneskeverd og Ondskap. Essays og artikler 1991-2002 (Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 2003, 347 s.)
- Stefán Snævarr: Fra Logos til Mytos. Metaforer, mening og erkjennelse. Kristiansand: Sokrates AS, 2003, 227 s.
- Jan-Kyrre Berg Olsen, red. Tid – fysiske, filosofiske og videnskabsfilosofiske perspektiver. Frederiksberg: Biofolia, 2003, 208 s.
- Reflections and Replies: Essays on the Philosophy of Tyler Burge (edited by Martin Hahn and Bjørn Ramberg). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. 504 + xxix pp. ISBN: 0-262-08315-9
- Alenka Zupančič: The Shortest Shadow – Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Two. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts/London, England, 2003. 193 pages. (Second volume in the “Short Circuits” series)
- Kant på svenska
- Hansen, Finn Thorbjørn: Det filosofiske liv. Et dannelsesideal for eksistenspædagogikken, København, Gyldendal 2002
