Freedom and Control: on the Modality of Free Will

Mumford, Stephen; Anjum, Rani Lill

Abstract

Free will is a problem of modality, hampered by a commitment to modal dualism: the view that there is only necessity and pure contingency. If we have necessity, then things couldn't have been otherwise, against the Principle of Alternate Possibilities (AP). If there is complete contingency, then the agent seems to have no control over her actions, against the principle of Ultimate Authorship (UA). There is a third modality in natural causal processes, however. AP and UA can be reconciled if we allow both causation and agency to involve the dispositional modality.

Citation

Mumford, S., & Anjum, R. L. (2015). Freedom and Control: on the Modality of Free Will. American Philosophical Quarterly, 52(1), 1-11

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jan 31, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Deposit Date: Aug 14, 2017
• Journal: American Philosophical Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0003-0481
• Electronic ISSN: 2152-1123
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-11
• Publisher URL: http://apq.press.illinois.edu/view.php?vol=52&iss=1&f=mumford.pdf