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The Modern Schoolman:
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Alicia Finch
Experimental Philosophy and the Concept of Moral Responsibility
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In recent years, so-called experimental philosophers have argued that participants in the moral responsibility debate ought to adopt a new methodology. In particular, they argue, the results of experimental surveys ought to be introduced into the debate. According to the experimental philosophers, these surveys are philosophically relevant because they provide information about the moral responsibility judgments that ordinary people make. Moreover, they argue, anaccount of moral responsibility is satisfactory only if it is tightly connected to ordinary judgments. The purpose of this paper is to undermine this argument. I will argue that experimental philosophers have not adequately acknowledged the distinction between metaphysics and conceptual analysis; they have not carefully distinguished what-it-is-to-be morally responsible from the concept of moral responsibility. I will draw this distinction, and then argue that metaphysicians quametaphysicians may both ignore experimental data and offer an account of moral responsibility that satisfies the tight connection desideratum.
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22.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Kevin Timpe
Tracing and the Epistemic Condition on Moral Responsibility
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In “The Trouble with Tracing,” Manuel Vargas argues that tracing-based approaches to moral responsibility are considerably more problematic than previously acknowledged. Vargas argues that many initially plausible tracing-based cases of moral responsibility turn out to be ones in which the epistemic condition for moral responsibility is not satisfied, thus suggesting that contrary to initial appearances the agent isn’t morally responsible for the action in question. In the present paper, I outline two different strategies for responding to Vargas’s trouble with tracing. I then show how further consideration of the epistemic condition for moral responsibility renders tracing significantly less problematic than Vargas claims.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Christopher Evan Franklin
Masks, Abilities, and Opportunities:
Why the New Dispositionalism Cannot Succeed
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Conditional analyses of ability have been nearly entirely abandoned by philosophers of action as woefully inadequate attempts of analyzing the concept of ability. Recently, however, Vihvelin (2004) and Fara (2008) have appealed to the similarity between dispositions and abilities, as well as recent advances in the metaphysics of dispositions, in order to construct putatively superior conditional analyses of ability. Vihvelin and Fara claim that their revised conditional analysesof ability enable them to show that Frankfurt-style cases fail to sever the connection between freedom and responsibility, and that compatibilism about free will and determinism is true. I argue, however, that even granting the truth of their dispositional analyses, they cannot achieve these aims. Vihvelin and Fara’s fundamental error lies in their failing to appreciate the complex nature of free will and moral responsibility—specifically that agents’ freedom and responsibility depend not only on their abilities, but also their opportunities.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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C. P. Ragland
Softening Fischer’s Hard Compatibilism
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According to “hard” compatibilists, we can be responsible for our actions not only when they are determined by mindless natural causes, but also when some agent other than ourselves intentionally determines us to act as we do. “Soft” compatibilists consider freedom compatible with merely natural determinism, but not with intentional determinism (e.g., theological determinism). Because he believes there is no relevant difference (NRD) between a naturally determined agent and a relevantly similar intentionally determined agent, John Martin Fischer is a hard compatibilist. However, he argues for “historical” compatibilism by appealing to the intuition that certain manipulated agents are not responsible. By considering a new type of manipulation case, I show that Fischer’s appeal to ordinary intuitions about manipulation conflicts with NRD, so that he must choose between the two. The closing section explains why I think going “soft” is Fischer’s better option.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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John P. Rosheger
A Note on Avicenna and the Divine Attributes
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Bernardo J. Cantens
The Relationship between God and Essences and the Notion of Eternal Truths according to Francisco Suárez
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Peter Adamson
Two Early Arabic Doxographies on the Soul:
Al-Kindi and the "Theology of Aristotle"
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28.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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John P. Doyle
Suárez on the Truth of the Proposition, "This Is My Body"
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Robert A. Imlay
Causal Necessity and the Principle of Alternate Possibilities:
Sublata causa tollitur effectus
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Gavin T. Colvert
Cognition without Mirrors:
Ockham's Theory of Signification
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31.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Woosuk Park
Toward a Scotistic Modal Metaphysics
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32.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Deborah Vess
Abelard on Meaning and Usage:
Some Implications for the "Ethics"
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33.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Claudia Lorena García
The Falsity of Non-Judgmental Cognitions in Descartes and Suárez
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34.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Rogelio Rovira
Monads Facing the Labyrinth of the Continuum
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35.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Beverly K. Hinton
Is Hume's Inductive Scepticism Based Upon Rationalistic Assumptions?
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36.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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W. J. Mander
Bosanquet and the Concrete Universal
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37.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Martin J. Henn
The Prospect of Positive Theology amid Two Theories of Transcendence in Aristotle
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38.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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John F. Kobler
Vatican II’s Pastoral Theology Needs Philosophy
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39.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Issue: 1
Deborah Boyle
Descartes on Innate Ideas
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40.
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The Modern Schoolman:
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Issue: 1
Antonio Perez-Estevez
Substantiality of Prime Matter in Averroes
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