Derk Pereboom on the Manipulation Argument

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter, Taylor Cyr and Matthew Flummer speak with Derk Pereboom about the Manipulation Argument, which is a family of arguments against compatibilism. Compatibilism says that free will and moral responsibility are compatible with causal determinism, and the Manipulation Argument attempts to show that causally determined agents are not relevantly different from manipulated agents whose freedom and responsibility are undermined. After discussing Pereboom’s “Four-Case Argument,” they go on to talk about Alfred Mele’s “Zygote Argument.” As the conversation goes on, they also discuss several different types of response to the Manipulation Argument, including both hard-line and soft-line replies to the argument.