Randolph Clarke
Encyclopedia
Randolph Clarke is a Professor of Philosophy
at Florida State University
. His interests are human agency, particularly intentional action, free will
, and moral responsibility
.
Clarke's book, Libertarian Accounts of Free Will, examines the contributions of indeterminism
to free will models. He defends such libertarian views from common objections, but he finds the accounts inadequate. "If responsibility isn’t compatible with determinism, then," he thinks, "it isn’t possible."
's two-stage model of decision making and Alfred Mele
's "modest" libertarianism "deliberative," since quantum indeterminacy
internal to the mind is limited to the deliberations. By contrast, he calls Robert Kane
's model a "centered" event libertarian view, by which he means the quantum randomness is in the center of the decision itself.
Clarke accepts the Kane view that if the agent's decision simply results from the events in the deliberation phase that that could not be what he calls "directly free." It would not produce Kane's "ultimate responsibility (UR).
Although Clarke says that a "centered event-causal libertarian view provides a conceptually adequate account of free will," he doubts that it can provide for moral responsibility
. He says that
Incompatibilist (Nondeterministic) Theories of Free Will on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
. His interests are human agency, particularly intentional action, free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
, and moral responsibility
Moral responsibility
Moral responsibility usually refers to the idea that a person has moral obligations in certain situations. Disobeying moral obligations, then, becomes grounds for justified punishment. Deciding what justifies punishment, if anything, is a principle concern of ethics.People who have moral...
.
Clarke's book, Libertarian Accounts of Free Will, examines the contributions of indeterminism
Indeterminism
Indeterminism is the concept that events are not caused, or not caused deterministically by prior events. It is the opposite of determinism and related to chance...
to free will models. He defends such libertarian views from common objections, but he finds the accounts inadequate. "If responsibility isn’t compatible with determinism, then," he thinks, "it isn’t possible."
Libertarian Accounts of Free Will
Clarke calls Daniel DennettDaniel Dennett
Daniel Clement Dennett is an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-director of...
's two-stage model of decision making and Alfred Mele
Alfred Mele
Alfred Remen Mele is an American philosopher. He has been the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University since 2000...
's "modest" libertarianism "deliberative," since quantum indeterminacy
Quantum indeterminacy
Quantum indeterminacy is the apparent necessary incompleteness in the description of a physical system, that has become one of the characteristics of the standard description of quantum physics...
internal to the mind is limited to the deliberations. By contrast, he calls Robert Kane
Robert Kane
Robert Kane may refer to:* Bob Kane , born as Robert Kahn; co-creator of Batman* Robert Kane , Irish chemist* Robert Kane , president of the United States Olympic Committee...
's model a "centered" event libertarian view, by which he means the quantum randomness is in the center of the decision itself.
Clarke accepts the Kane view that if the agent's decision simply results from the events in the deliberation phase that that could not be what he calls "directly free." It would not produce Kane's "ultimate responsibility (UR).
Although Clarke says that a "centered event-causal libertarian view provides a conceptually adequate account of free will," he doubts that it can provide for moral responsibility
Moral responsibility
Moral responsibility usually refers to the idea that a person has moral obligations in certain situations. Disobeying moral obligations, then, becomes grounds for justified punishment. Deciding what justifies punishment, if anything, is a principle concern of ethics.People who have moral...
. He says that
An event-causal libertarian view secures ultimate control, which no compatibilist account provides. But the secured ultimacy is wholly negative: it is just (on a centered view) a matter of the absence of any determining cause of a directly free action. The active control that is exercised on such a view is just the same as that exercised on an event-causal compatibilist account.
Publications
Libertarian Accounts of Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.Incompatibilist (Nondeterministic) Theories of Free Will on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy