PHIL-020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Parabolic Trajectory, Social Philosophy, Gas Lighting
5 Nov 2016
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Paul benson: author of free agency and self worth. Provost and professor of philosophy, university of dayton. Expert on ethics, moral psychology, action theory, and social philosophy. There"s something wrong with normal accounts of free agency. To act freely means there are: no physical constraints, no threats/menaces. To not be able to act freely means that there are interruptions in procedural freedom, impediments. Examples of this unfreedom are: not being able to regulate behavior by means of will. Brain interventions, for example (alteration of brain signals: able to act willfully but not able to regulate will (or its content) * note: it is debatable whether coercion is a form of unfreedom because it does not normally obstruct the agent"s ability to do what she thinks best or what most matters to her (653) A: no, he is limited by morality, physical limitations (such as gravity; cannot escape orbit, for example) *all cases result in feeling of reduced statuses*
