The principle of alternative possibilities

Question 1

If a person is morally responsible for what they have done…..

Answer 1

Then they could have done otherwise

Question 2

The argument for moral responsibility

Answer 2

1. If a person is morally responsible for what she has done, then she has free will
2. If a person has free will, then she could have done otherwise
   Therefore, 3. If a person is morally responsible for what he has done, then she could have done otherwise.

Question 3

Incompatibilist argument of moral responsibility

Answer 3

1. If a person is morally responsible for what she has done, then
   she could have done otherwise.
2. If determinism is true, no one can do otherwise than one
   actually does.
   Therefore
3. If determinism is true, no one is morally responsible for what
   they do.

Question 4

What does Frankfurt aim to do?

Answer 4

Challenge premise 1 of the incompatibilist argument of moral responsibility

Question 5

What does Frankfurt argue?

Answer 5

The principle of alternative possibilities is false, people can be morally responsible even if they couldn’t have done otherwise

Question 6

Step 1 of Frankfurt’s challenge

Answer 6

Take an example of an action which a) satisfies PAP, and b) everyone would agree is an action for which its agent is morally responsible.

Question 7

Step 2 of Frankfurt’s challenge

Answer 7

Now add to the example some new intervention that would causally necessitate that action and make it so that the agent was unable to avoid acting that way, if the agent
did not herself act to bring it about. (call this ‘the Enforcer’)

Question 8

Step 3 of Frankfurt’s challenge

Answer 8

Next assume the Enforcer is not needed, instead the agent performs the action ‘on her own’.

Question 9

Why does Frankfurt’s challenge mean they bear the same moral responsibility for the different causes of action?

Answer 9

Because the agent did the actions for the same reasons as they would have done it if they could have done otherwise, the circumstance that she could not have done otherwise in no way explains the action, they are just as responsible for the action

Question 10

Frankfurt’s argument against the principle of alternative possibilities

Answer 10

1. An agent is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise (PAP).
2. If PAP is true, then a Frankfurt-style case will absolve its subject from moral responsibility.
3. Frankfurt-style cases do not absolve their subjects from moral responsibility.
   Therefore, 4. PAP is false

Question 11

What does Frankfurt’s challenge mean for compatibilists?

Answer 11

They are able to argue that even if determinism is true, people are still morally responsible for what they do without having to reject premise 2

Question 12

What question comes form Frankfurt’s disregard of premise 1?

Answer 12

What kind of freedom is required for moral responsibility

Question 13

How does Fischer respond to the question of what freedom is required?

Answer 13

What matters is not what might have happened but how the action was actually brought about, were they the source of their actions not did they have the ability to do otherwise

Question 14

Indeterminate worlds objection

Answer 14

The situations in Frankfurt’s argument would not arise in an indeterminist world

Question 15

Where decisions are indeterminate…

Answer 15

Moral responsibility and alternative possibilities go together

Question 16

Who are Frankfurt examples of limited interest to?

Answer 16

The libertarian, who believes determinism is false