Free Will Second edition ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY Free Will, Kevin Timpe Free Will: A Guide for the Perplexed, T. J. Mawson Free Will Second edition Sourcehood and its Alternatives KEVIN TIMPE Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 175 Fifth Avenue London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10010 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com First published 2013 © Kevin Timpe, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Kevin Timpe has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-4411-7174-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Timpe, Kevin. Free will : sourcehood and its alternatives / Kevin Timpe. -- 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-8993-6 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-4642-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-7174-0 (ebook pdf : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-9735-1 (ebook epub : alk. paper) 1. Free will and determinism. I. Title. BJ1461.T48 2012 123'.5--dc23 2012015689 Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN For A, J, and E; I will fight away the darkness. For you. CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi PART ONE Introducing the issues 1 1 The basics 3 Introduction 3 Moral responsibility 5 Free will 8 Choices and actions 12 The thesis of causal determinism 13 2 The compatibility question 17 Compatibilism and incompatibilism 17 Kinds of incompatibilism and compatibilism 22 The consequence argument 26 3 Revisionist accounts 32 Moving beyond compatibilism and incompatibilism 32 Ted Honderich 32 Manuel Vargas 37 The moral of the story 46 Conclusion 49 4 Free will skepticism 51 Introduction 51 Free will affirmation 52 Free will skepticism 58 Evaluating free will skepticism 62 viii CONTENTS PART TWO Alternative possibilities 67 5 The debate over the ability to do otherwise 69 Introduction 69 The core argument and alternative possibilities 69 Compatibilism and alternative possibilities 71 Incompatibilism and alternative possibilities 79 6 The dilemma defense 81 Introduction 81 The dilemma posed 82 Rebutting the dilemma 85 Compatibilist rejoinders 95 Agential focus 98 7 Flickers of freedom 101 Introduction 101 The flicker strategy 101 Dialectical considerations 113 Pointing towards sourcehood 116 PART THREE The importance of sourcehood 117 8 Sourcehood and compatibilism 119 Moving from alternatives to sourcehood 119 Two compatibilist accounts of sourcehood 122 Manipulation arguments 133 9 Sourcehood, incompatibilism, and alternatives 141 Source incompatibilism 141 Incompatibilism without AP 147 The relation between sourcehood and alternatives 158 CONTENTS ix 10 Incompatibilism and luck 162 Taking stock 162 The luck objection 163 The real problem with luck 170 For further reading 177 Notes 179 Bibliography 215 Index 229