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Wiley InterScience

The Philosophical Quarterly

The Philosophical Quarterly

Volume 59 Issue 235, Pages 237 - 251

Published Online: 16 Apr 2008

Journal compilation © 2010 The Editors of The Philosophical Quarterly



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LUCK AND HISTORY-SENSITIVE COMPATIBILISM
Neil Levy
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne, and James Martin 21st Century School, Oxford University
Copyright Journal compilation © 2008 The Editors of The Philosophical Quarterly

ABSTRACT

Libertarianism seems vulnerable to a serious problem concerning present luck, because it requires indeterminism somewhere in the causal chain leading to directly free action. Compatibilism, in contrast, is thought to be free of this problem, as not requiring indeterminism in the causal chain. I argue that this view is false: compatibilism is subject to a problem of present luck. This is less of a problem for compatibilism than for libertarianism. However, its effects are just as devastating for one kind of compatibilism, the kind of compatibilism which is history-sensitive, and therefore must take the problem of constitutive luck seriously. The problem of present luck confronting compatibilism is sufficient to undermine the history-sensitive compatibilist's response to remote – constitutive – luck.


DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)
10.1111/j.1467-9213.2008.568.x About DOI

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