Artikelomschrijving

The author advances the argument against the common view that accountability requires freedom of will. Instead, he maintains, the fairness of holding people responsible depends on their rational competence: the power to grasp moral reasons and to control their behaviour accordingly. He shows how these forms of rational competence are compatible with determinism. At the same time, giving serious consideration to incompatibilist concerns, Jay Wallace develops a diagnosis of the common assumption that freedom is necessary for responsibility.