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    Agency

    Moral Identity and Free Will

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    Author(s)
    Weissman, David cc
    Collection
    ScholarLed
    Language
    English
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    Abstract
    "There is agency in all we do: thinking, doing, or making. We invent a tune, play, or use it to celebrate an occasion. Or we make a conceptual leap and ask more abstract questions about the conditions for agency. They include autonomy and self-appraisal, each contested by arguments immersing us in circumstances we don’t control. But can it be true we that have no personal responsibility for all we think and do? Agency: Moral Identity and Free Will proposes that deliberation, choice, and free will emerged within the evolutionary history of animals with a physical advantage: organisms having cell walls or exoskeletons had an internal space within which to protect themselves from external threats or encounters. This defense was both structural and active: such organisms could ignore intrusions or inhibit risky behavior. Their capacities evolved with time: inhibition became the power to deliberate and choose the manner of one’s responses. Hence the ability of humans and some other animals to determine their reactions to problematic situations or to information that alters values and choices. This is free will as a material power, not as the conclusion to a conceptual argument. Having it makes us morally responsible for much we do. It prefigures moral identity. Closely argued but plainly written, Agency: Moral Identity and Free Will speaks for autonomy and responsibility when both are eclipsed by ideas that embed us in history or tradition. Our sense of moral choice and freedom is accurate. We are not altogether the creatures of our circumstances. "
    URI
    https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/41258
    Keywords
    agency; moral identity; free will; philosophy; moral philosophy
    DOI
    10.11647/OBP.0197
    ISBN
    9781783748754, 9781783748761, 9781783748785, 9781783748792, 9781783748808
    Publisher
    Open Book Publishers
    Publisher website
    https://www.openbookpublishers.com/
    Publication date and place
    2020
    Classification
    Philosophy
    Ethics & moral philosophy
    Social & political philosophy
    Pages
    210
    Rights
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    • Imported or submitted locally

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    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

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