Date of Award

Summer 6-5-2011

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

Dr. Eddy Nahmias

Second Advisor

Dr. Andrew J. Cohen

Third Advisor

Dr. Dan Weiskopf

Abstract

Robert Kane asserts that some decisions and actions which are made by an agent are undetermined. These undetermined decisions are what allow an agent to have free will and ultimate responsibility for her decisions and actions. Kane appeals to probabilistic causation in order to argue that these undetermined decisions are not arbitrary or random. I argue that Woodward’s interventionist approach to causation can be used by Kane to make his theory of free will more plausible by illustrating how the agent causes her decision. Woodward’s account can link an agent’s reasons with her decision, activity in her self-network with her decision, and can render undetermined decisions plural rational, plural voluntary, and plural voluntarily controlled.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/2101215

Included in

Philosophy Commons

Share

COinS