Taylor's Ingenious Physiologist Example
(IP3 376b)

Imagine a physiologist who causes me to have certain desires (and other internal psychological states).

If I then act from these desires, I am acting freely, according to the soft determinist.

But this is surely not a free action, Taylor says. ("It is the perfect description of a puppet." IP3 377a)

So, the Soft Determinist account of free action is mistaken.

The argument formulated:

1.If Soft Determinism is correct, then a person who acts from desires which have been induced in them (by an ingenious physiologist) is acting freely.
2.A person who acts from desires which have been induced in them (by an ingenious physiologist) is not acting freely.
So,3.Soft Determinism is not correct. (1, 2 MT)


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 10 October 2004