The Research Seminar Series in Philosophy invites you to a seminar with Christian Löw, "Abilities to Do Otherwise".
Abstract:
Abilities come in different senses. Sally is a trained singer who has performed in many concerts. In this sense, she can sing. However, right now her critical aunt is in the audience who makes Sally so nervous that she cannot get out a single tone. In this sense, Sally cannot sing. Let us say that Sally lacks the local ability to sing but maintains the global ability to sing. This distinction is important for the debate about free will. Some incompatibilists hold that, if determinism is true, we do not have free will because we can never do otherwise. These incompatibilists typically maintain that, even if determinism is true, we still many abilities to do things that we do not in fact do. However, they argue that we would we never have the local ability to do otherwise, and it is the local ability to do otherwise that is required for free will. In this talk, I will argue that there are no strong arguments for thinking that free will requires the local ability to do otherwise rather than some other kind of ability to do otherwise that is uncontroversially compatible with determinism.
All interested are welcome to participate in this seminar.
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