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358Free will and responsibility: Ancient dispute, new themes (review)The Journal of Ethics 4 (4): 313-417. 2000.
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193The complex tapestry of free will: striving will, indeterminism and volitional streamsSynthese 196 (1): 145-160. 2019.The aim of this paper is to respond to recent discussion of, and objections to, the libertarian view of free will I have developed in many works over the past four decades. The issues discussed all have a bearing on the central question of how one might make sense of a traditional free will requiring indeterminism in the light of modern science. This task involves, among other things, avoiding all traditional libertarian appeals to unusual forms of agency or causation that cannot be accounted fo…Read more
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36Deontic Acts, Frankfurt-Style Examples, and "'Ought' Implies 'Can'"The Journal of Ethics 4 (4): 357-360. 2000.
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458_Some say there is no progress in philosophy, and certainly there is one sense in_ _which they are wrong. There are at least significant developments in philosophical_ _doctrines that have been persistently advocated in the past. With confidence I leave_ _you to arrive at a satisfactory understanding of 'significant'. There is no doubt that_ _Robert Kane has made some progress, probably more than any other contemporary_ _philosopher, in the laying out and defending of the doctrine that an unders…Read more
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213On free will, responsibility and indeterminism: Responses to Clarke, Haji, and MelePhilosophical Explorations 2 (2): 105-121. 1999.This paper responds to three critical essays on my book, The Significance of Free Will(Oxford, 1996) by Randolph Clarke, Istiyaque Haji and Alfred Mele (which essays appear in this issue and an earlier issue of this journal). This response first explains crucial features of the theory of free will of the book, including the notion of ultimate responsibility.The paper then answers objections of Haji and Mele that the occurrence of undetermined choices would be matters of luck or chance, and so co…Read more
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173LibertarianismIn John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, Derk Pereboom & Manuel Vargas (eds.), Four Views on Free Will, Wiley-blackwell. 2007.
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87Free Will and ValuesState University of New York Press. 1985._A philosophical analysis of free will and the relativity of values._
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517The Oxford Handbook of Free Will (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2001.This comprehensive reference provides an exhaustive guide to current scholarship on the perennial problem of Free Will--perhaps the most hotly and voluminously debated of all philosophical problems. While reference is made throughout to the contributions of major thinkers of the past, the emphasis is on recent research. The essays, most of which are previously unpublished, combine the work of established scholars with younger thinkers who are beginning to make significant contributions. Taken as…Read more
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5Some neglected pathways in the free will labyrinthIn The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, Oxford University Press. 2001.
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35Excerpts from Robert Kane's Discussion with Members of the AudienceThe Journal of Ethics 4 (4). 2000.
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127Moral Responsibility, Reactive Attitudes and Freedom of WillThe Journal of Ethics 20 (1-3): 229-246. 2016.In his influential paper, “Freedom and Resentment,” P. F. Strawson argued that our ordinary practices of holding persons morally responsible and related reactive attitudes were wholly “internal” to the practices themselves and could be insulated from traditional philosophical and metaphysical concerns, including concerns about free will and determinism. This “insulation thesis” is a controversial feature of Strawson’s influential paper; and it has had numerous critics. The first purpose of this …Read more
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21God, Free Will and Morality (review)Review of Metaphysics 39 (2): 374-375. 1985.The early chapters of this book deal with what the author calls the "dilemma of obligability.". The apparent dilemma is that obligability is not compatible with either determinism or indeterminism. The author believes the dilemma can be avoided by denying the principle that "'ought' implies 'can'," or the principle that obligability entails substitutability. This is because, as the dilemma is presented in the book, it is generated by the assumption that obligability entails substitutability toge…Read more
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86Free will and the dialectic of selfhood: Can one make sense of a traditional free will requiring ultimate responsibility?Ideas Y Valores 58 (141): 25-43. 2009.For four decades, I have been developing a distinctive view of free will according to which agents are required to be ultimately responsible for the creation or formation of their own wills (characters and purposes). The aim of this paper is to explain how a free will of this traditional kind -which..
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142Torn decisions, luck, and libertarian free will: comments on Balaguer’s free will as an open scientific problemPhilosophical Studies (1): 1-8. 2012.
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45Ethics and the quest for wisdomCambridge University Press. 2010.Modernity has challenged the ancient ideal of a universal quest for wisdom, and today's world of conflicting cultures and values has raised further doubts regarding the possibility of objective ethical standards. Robert Kane refocuses the debate on the philosophical quest for wisdom, and argues that ethical principles about right action and the good life can be seen to emerge from that very quest itself. His book contends that the search for wisdom involves a persistent striving to overcome narr…Read more
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110Responsibility, Reactive Attitudes and Free Will: Reflections on Wallace’s Theory (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 64 (3). 2002.R. Jay Wallace’s Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments develops an original compatibilist approach to issues about moral responsibility and freedom that cannot be ignored by anyone working on these topics. Wallace’s theory is “Strawsonian” in the sense that it is heavily indebted to P. F. Strawson’s influential work on reactive attitudes. But we would seriously underestimate the originality of Wallace’s accomplishment if we said that his theory was merely an extension of Strawson’s. It include…Read more
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29Oxford Handbook on Free Will (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2001.This comprehensive reference provides an exhaustive guide to current scholarship on the perennial problem of Free Will--perhaps the most hotly and voluminously debated of all philosophical problems. While reference is made throughout to the contributions of major thinkers of the past, the emphasis is on recent research. The essays, most of which are previously unpublished, combine the work of established scholars with younger thinkers who are beginning to make significant contributions. Taken as…Read more
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37Free will, bound and unbound: reflections on Shaun Nichols’ boundPhilosophical Studies 174 (10): 2479-2488. 2017.Nichols’ Bound presents interesting new angles on traditional debates about free will and moral responsibility, relating them to the latest empirical research in psychology, social sciences and experimental philosophy. In experimental philosophy, he cites numerous recent studies showing that there are strong incompatibilist strands in folk intuitions about free will and responsibility, taking issue with other recent studies claiming that folk intuitions are predominantly compatibilist. But he al…Read more
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122The Oxford Handbook of Free Will: Second Edition (edited book)Oup Usa. 2011.This second edition of The Oxford Handbook of Free Will is intended to be a sourcebook and guide to current work on free will and related subjects.
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90Free Will (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2001._ _ _Free Will_ brings together the essential readings on the debate of free will and determinism.Written by top scholars in the field, the essays represent some of the clearest and most accessible thinking on this subject. The introduction offers a concise yet thorough mapping of this age-old debate as well as a helpful overview of the selections
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36These three papers are exceptionally rich and varied and I will be selective in responding. My aim is to relate the psychological research they discuss to the broader context of current philosophical debates about free will
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1246A Contemporary Introduction to Free WillOxford University Press. 2005.Accessible to students with no background in the subject, A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will provides an extensive and up-to-date overview of all the latest views on this central problem of philosophy. Opening with a concise introduction to the history of the problem of free will--and its place in the history of philosophy--the book then turns to contemporary debates and theories about free will, determinism, and related subjects like moral responsibility, coercion, compulsion, autonomy, …Read more
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77Responsibility, indeterminism and Frankfurt-style cases: A reply to Mele and RobbIn David Widerker & Michael McKenna (eds.), Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities: Essays on the Importance of Alternative Possibilities, Ashgate. pp. 91--105. 2003.
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26Non-constraining control and the threat of social conditioningThe Journal of Ethics 4 (4): 401-403. 2000.
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2IncompatibilismIn Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Contemporary debates in metaphysics, Blackwell. 2008.
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