Historical Moral Responsibility: Is The Infinite Regress Problem Fatal?

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 98 (4):533-554 (2017)
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Abstract

Some compatibilists have responded to the manipulation argument for incompatibilism by proposing an historical theory of moral responsibility which, according to one version, requires that agents be morally responsible for having their pro-attitudes if they are to be morally responsible for acting on them. This proposal, however, leads obviously to an infinite regress problem. I consider a proposal by Haji and Cuypers that addresses this problem and argue that it is unsatisfactory. I then go on to propose a new solution inspired by the libertarian theory of Robert Kane.

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Eric Barnes
Southern Methodist University

Citations of this work

Character control and historical moral responsibility.Eric Christian Barnes - 2016 - Philosophical Studies 173 (9):2311-2331.
Motivational determinism.Eric Christian Barnes - 2023 - Analytic Philosophy 64 (3):211-227.

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References found in this work

Brainstorms.Daniel C. Dennett - 1978 - MIT Press.
Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility.John Martin Fischer & Mark Ravizza - 1998 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Mark Ravizza.
Freedom of the will and the concept of a person.Harry G. Frankfurt - 1971 - Journal of Philosophy 68 (1):5-20.
Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility.Harry G. Frankfurt - 1969 - Journal of Philosophy 66 (23):829-839.
The Significance of Free Will.Robert Kane - 1996 - New York, US: Oxford University Press USA.

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