Chance, Ability, and Control

Matthew Mandelkern (New York University)

Title: Chance, Ability, and Control

Abstract: I argue that probability judgments about chancy ability ascriptions provide an important source of evidence about the meaning of ability ascriptions. In particular, I argue that they provide evidence against the popular (and prima facie intuitive) view that ability requires control over the action in question, and evidence for the venerable (but heterodox) view that ability ascriptions have an essentially conditional meaning.

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