Philosophy 542
Selected Topics in Metaphysics
Fall 2004

Texts: Freedom and Determinism, edited by Campbell, O’Rourke, and Shier

            Free Will, 2^nd Edition, edited by Gary Watson

Topic: These two collections contain essays on most of the main issues in the philosophical debates about freedom, determinism, and moral responsibility. We will work through a selection of essays from both books, thereby covering the highlights of the recent literature. Among the more specific topics we will address: i) the consequence argument (designed to refute compatibilism); ii) Frankfurt style examples (designed to show that moral responsibility for an action does not require the ability to act differently); iii) compatibilist theories about the nature of responsibility and freedom; iv) theories of responsibility; v) contextualist accounts of “free” and related terms; vi) defenses of indeterminism. [These topics overlap significantly.]

Requirements:
1) 8 “weeklies”: Weeklies are 1-2 page discussions of the week’s readings. They need not be fully developed critical papers. They should be more than random notes taken while doing the reading. They should identify an issue (or issues) that merit discussion during the seminar meeting. I would like to receive weeklies by noon on Friday before the seminar in which they will be discussed., but I will accept them until 6PM on Sunday. (Submitting a weekly late is no better than not submitting one at all.) While formal seminar presentations will not be required, students will routinely be asked to present to the rest of the class the ideas developed in their weeklies. I will try to send out some questions about the readings and things to think about several days ahead of time.

2) A term paper: The paper can be on any of the topics discussed during the semester. If all goes well, weeklies will grow into term papers. There is no specific page requirement. 10-15 pages is probably a reasonable target. Discuss topics with me when you decide about them. A draft of the paper should be turned in just before the end of classes and the final version will be due soon after classes end. Exact dates will be announced later.

3) Participation in class discussion: I will prepare material, based in part on your weeklies, but class meetings will largely be discussions in which we all participate.

Incomplete and Extremely Tentative Schedule

Topic 1: The Consequence Argument

van Inwagen, “An Argument for Incompatibilism,” in Watson.

Lewis, “Are We Free to Break the Laws?” in Watson

van Inwagen, “Van Inwagen on Free Will,” in Campbell

Perry, “Compatibilist Options,” in Campbell

Topic 2: The Frankfurt Examples

Frankfurt, “Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility,” in Watson

Widerker, “Libertarianism and Frankfurt’s Attack on the Principle of Alternate Possibilities,” in Watson

Fischer, “The Transfer of Nonresponsibility,” in Campbell

Topic 3: Compatibilism

Frankfurt, “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person,” in Watson

Fischer, “Frankfurt-style Compatibilism,” in Watson

Long, “Moderate Reasons-Responsiveness,” in Campbell

Lehrer, “Freedom and the Power of Preference,” in Campbell

Topic 4: Responsibility

Nelkin, “The Sense of Freedom,” in Campbell

Haji, “Libertarian Openness, Blameworthiness, and Time,” in Campbell

Arpaly, “Which Autonomy?” in Campbell

Strawson, “The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility,” in Watson

Topic 5: Contextualism

Hawthorne, “Freedom in Context,” in Philosophical Studies 2001.

Feldman, “Freedom and Contextualism,” in Campbell

Horgan, “‘Could’, Possible Worlds, and Moral Responsibility,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 1979

Rieber, “Free Will and Contextualism,” forthcoming in Philosophical Studies

Topic 6: Libertarianism

Kane, “Agency, Responsibility, and Indeterminism,” in Campbell

Other readings to be determined, depending upon time and our interests.