Freedom for Humans

Philosophers have long worried that if determinism is true, we lack the ability to do otherwise that is necessary to justify holding each other responsible. Yet we hold corporations and states responsible, and never seem to worry that determinism would undermine the justifiability of that. Why? This lecture will argue that the problem posed by determinism is misunderstood insofar as it has led us to focus on the ability to do otherwise. If anything is threatened by determinism, it is not our ability to do otherwise, but the meaning that is expressed by our doing what we do. More specifically, determinism makes salient the question of how it is possible for our actions to be expressions of the kinds of selves we take ourselves to be.