PHL D87 - Essay Two Topics

Here are a set of possible topics for PHLD87's second essay. Please select one to write on. Alternatively, if you'd like to write on the topic of your presentation -- assuming you have done a presentation -- please let me know via email of your choice.

Your essay should be between 1800-2000 words. You should strive to both explain the issue you are dealing with as clearly as possible and critically/argumentative engage with the issue. This should involve both analysing and criticising existing arguments in the readings and attempting to advance the debate with your own arguments and point of view.

1. Pereboom's Incompatibilism. What is Pereboom's docrine of "hard incompatibilism". Describe his theory and its relation to "hard determinism". Assess its strenghts and weaknesses and consider whether it succeeds as an account of the nature of freedom and moral responsibility.

2. Revisionism. What is the doctrine of revisionism as presented by Vargas? Assess its strengths and weaknesses and consider whether it succeeds as a theory of free will. Pay particular attention to whether Vargas's account of freedom can evade the Frankfurt case counter-examples.

3. The Big Picture.Try to home in on the central point you think characterizes the free will debate. How do the accounts of free will we have studied deal with this central point? Do you think that any one of these accounts is correct? Why or why not?