compatibilism/morality book recommendation

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JP2U
 
Reply Sun 3 Jan, 2010 08:24 pm
Can someone recommend a good contemporary author or essay collection on compatibilism/moral responsibility, especially one that's friendly to moral and modal realisms and that doesn't waste much time arguing against incompatibilism (since it's imo incoherent)?

I currently think the whole guidance control vs. regulative control thing is largely an artificial distinction in the sense that we either don't actually assign moral responsibility with regards to that distinction (nor should we be expected to), or else that there are cases in which it's not even in principle clear whether guidance vs. regulative control is what's at stake. I'd like to find someone who either agrees with me on that and proposes an alternative basis for making assignments of freedom and moral responsibility or who can otherwise clear up these issues for me.

I know that there's a lot of fairly recent material out there on this and I'd like to pare down my reading list.
 
VideCorSpoon
 
Reply Mon 4 Jan, 2010 12:45 am
@JP2U,
One book that I have found to be particularly useful is A Theory of Determinism: The Mind, Neuroscience, and Life-Hopes (Oxford, 1988). At least as far as a college course paper was concerned... honestly I'm not very much interested in the subject. LOL! I looked up the more recent addition of the book and they split it into two volumes. The first volume is Mind and Brain: A Theory of Determinism Vol 1. For some reason, its $114! Hilarious! But what you may be looking for is the second volume entitled The Consequences of Determinism: A Theory of Determinism. Apparently, that books' chapter 1 has what you may be looking for. I don't know if they go into the narrow scope that you want (don't we all wish most books did though), but it appears to be a good place to start looking. Also, its a much better price... around $50.
 
Emil
 
Reply Fri 8 Jan, 2010 06:16 pm
@JP2U,
Maybe you should try Swartz' The Concept of Physical Law, in which he spends a lot of time discussing Free Will and determinism and IIRC also a bit about moral responsibility. The book is freely available online and so are his other notes on the topic.

"The Concept of Physical Law", by Norman Swartz

Notes on Free Will and Determinism - Prof. Norman Swartz
 
 

 
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