The Libertarian Spectrum (Part II) Event-Causal Views, Centered and Non-centered

Abstract

Abstract The author’s view is usually depicted in the current literature as an event-causal libertarian view. But for reasons explained in Chapter 5, it was never strictly an event-causal view, but rather an agent-causal/event-causal or AC/EC view of the kind described there. And for reasons spelled out in Chapter 6, the view was also not strictly speaking a “centered” view. Undetermined self-forming free actions need not occur only in terminating deliberations, but in many other places in the practical lives of agents. This chapter discusses a variety of influential event-causal libertarian views in the current literature by different authors, comparing them to and contrasting them from the AC/EC view of this book. It explains which aspects of these event-causal views can be retained in this AC/EC view and which cannot. Doing so, the chapter argues, throws additional light on this view and free will issues generally.