
Contents
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1. Internal Challenges 1. Internal Challenges
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2. Freedom and Power to Do Otherwise 2. Freedom and Power to Do Otherwise
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3. Conditional Analysis of Power Rejected 3. Conditional Analysis of Power Rejected
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4. Conditional Analyses and the Consequence Argument 4. Conditional Analyses and the Consequence Argument
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5. Ability, Opportunity, and Motivation 5. Ability, Opportunity, and Motivation
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6. A Superior Compatibilist Strategy 6. A Superior Compatibilist Strategy
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Notes Notes
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8 Ifs, Cans, and Free Will: The Issues
Get accessBernard Berofsky is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University. His principal areas of interest are free will and moral responsibility, philosophy of mind, and metaphysical topics, including causation and the self. His major works are: Liberation from Self, Freedom from Necessity, Determinism, Free Will and Determinism (an anthology) and numerous articles in major philosophical periodicals. He is a member of the executive committee of the editorial board of the Journal of Philosophy and has taught at the University of Michigan, Vassar College, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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Published:02 September 2009
Cite
Abstract
This article examines current debates about conditional analyses. It begins with G. E. Moore but focuses primarily on the forty-year period since the publication of J. L. Austin's influential essay “Ifs and Cans” (1961), which criticized Moore's view. Despite the difficulties with conditional analyses of can, power, and freedom, conditional analyses are far from dead among contemporary philosophers. Many compatibilists continue to believe that the spirit, if not the letter, of conditional or hypothetical analyses of power and freedom can be salvaged by focusing on more sophisticated interpretations of modal and counter/actual claims about what might or might not occur in possible worlds that are similar to the actual world. Yet conditional analyses of can, power, and freedom have frequently been on the defensive in recent philosophy; and many other compatibilists now try to avoid them altogether while seeking other ways to undermine arguments for incompatibilism. The article concludes with alternative compatibilist strategy that the author believes is worth pursuing.
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