Frankfurt’s Nefarious Neurosurgeon

Abstract

The compatibilist responses to the Consequence Argument (CA) canvassed in Chapter 3 fall into two broad categories. First, there are those who argue that there is a sense in which agents are able to do other than what they actually do that is compatible with the truth of determinism, and that it is this kind of ability to do otherwise – and not the kind presupposed by CA – that is required for acting freely. Second, there are those who argue that the ability to do otherwise is simply irrelevant to whether one acts freely and therefore morally responsibly.