Philo

Volume 5, Issue 2, Fall-Winter 2002

The Moral Hardness of Libertarianism

This paper provides a criticism designed to apply to most libertarian free will theorists. I argue that most libertarians hold three beliefs that jointly show them to be unsympathetic or hardhearted to persons whom they hold morally responsible: that persons are morally responsible only because they make libertarian choices, that we should hold persons responsible, and that we lack epistemic justitication for thinking persons make such choices. Softhearted persons who held these three beliefs would espouse hard determinism, which exonerates all persons of moral responsibility, or, at least, would not espouse libertarianism. I do not address the view, held by some libertarians, that we do have epistemic justification for thinking that persons make libertarian choices, a minority position that I believe cannot be sustained.