Is free-agency phenomenology accurate?
This chapter argues that free-agency phenomenology might be accurate or veridical even if determinism is true, in which case it is compatibilist. Indeed, free-agency phenomenology might be veridical even if it has libertarian presentational content and assuming the truth of determinism. Compatibilists can concede, at least for argument’s sake, that free-agency phenomenology is in one sense libertarian. Yet they should insist that it is in another sense compatibilist. Consequently, even if libertarian descriptions of free-agency phenomenology are apt, there is still a sense in which this very phenomenology might be veridical, assuming determinism. This verdict undermines a motivation for libertarianism, since it removes any presumption in favor of libertarianism based on phenomenology. It also supports the natural-kind view about free will.