Abstract
In this paper, I argue that trying is the locus of freedom and moral responsibility. Thus, any plausible view of free and responsible action must accommodate and account for free tryings. I then consider a version of agent causation whereby the agent directly causes her tryings. On this view, the agent is afforded direct control over her efforts and there is no need to posit—as other agent-causal theorists do—an uncaused event. I discuss the potential advantages of this sort of view, and its challenges.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, Frederick. 1995. “Trying: You’ve Got to Believe,”Journal of Philosophical Research Vol. XX: 549–61.
Brand, Myles. 1995. “Hornsby on Trying,”Journal of Philosophical Research Vol. XX: 541–7.
Bratman, Michael. 1987.Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.
Churchill, John and Timothy O’Connor, (forthcoming). “Reasons Explanation and Agent Control: In Search of an Integrated Account”.
Clarke, Randolph. 2000. “Libertarianism, Action Theory, and theLoci of Responsibility,”Philosophical Studies 98: 153–74.
Clarke, Randolph. 2002. “Libertarian Views: Critical Survey of Noncausal and Event-Causal Accounts of Free Agency” inThe Oxford Handbook of Free Will. Edited by Robert Kane. New York: Oxford UP: 356–85.
Clarke, Randolph. 2005. “Agent Causation and the Problem of Luck,”Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 86: 408–421.
Ekstrom, Laura Waddell. 2001. “Indeterminist Free Action” inAgency and Responsibility. Edited by Laura Ekstrom. Boulder, CO: Westview Press: 138–157.
Ginet, Carl. 2004. “Trying to Act” inFreedom and Determinism. Edited by Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O’Rourke, and David Shier. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 89–102.
Hornsby, Jennifer. 1995. “Reasons for Trying,”Journal of Philosophical Research Vol. XX: 525–39.
Kane, Robert. 1998.The Significance of Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kane, Robert. 1999. “Responsibility, Luck, and Chance: Reflections on Free Will and Indeterminism,”The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 96, No. 5. (May, 1999), pp. 217–240.
Kane, Robert, (unpublished). “Three Freedoms and What They Tell us about Agency, Responsibility and Free Will”.
Mele, Alfred R. 1997. “Agency and Mental Action,”Philosophical Perspectives, 11, Mind, Causation, and World: 231–249
Mele, Alfred R. 2005. “Libertarianism, Luck, and Control,”Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 86:381–407.
O’Connor, Timothy. 2000.Persons and Causes: The Metaphysics of Free Will, New York: Oxford University Press.
van Inwagen, Peter. 2000. “Free Will Remains a Mystery,”Philosophical Perspectives, 14, ed. James E. Tomberlin, Boston: Blackwell Publishers Inc.: 1–19.
Widerker, David. 2005. “Agent Causation and Control,”Faith and Philosophy, Vol. 22, No. 1: 87–98.
Yaffe, Gideon. 2004.Manifest Activity: Thomas Reid’s Theory of Action. New York: Oxford UP.
Zimmerman, Michael J. 1995. “Actions and Events,”Journal of Philosophical Research Vol. XX: 585–594.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Griffith, M. Freedom and trying: Understanding agent-causal exertions. Acta Anal 22, 16–28 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02866208
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02866208