Event Causation and Agent Causation

2001 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. J. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rational Agent ◽  
Agent Causation ◽  
Intentional Causation

It is a matter of dispute whether we should acknowledge the existence of two distinct species of causation – event causation and agent causation – and, if we should, whether either species of causation is reducible to the other. In this paper, the prospects for such a reduction either way are considered, the conclusion being that a reduction of event causation to agent causation is the more promising option. Agent causation, in the sense understood here, is taken to include but not to be restricted to the intentional causation of an event by a rational agent. But, it is argued, there are certain special features of intentional causation, understood as a sub-species of agent causation, which make the agent-causation approach to human agency a particularly promising one with which to tackle the problem of free will.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Evan Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Agent Causation ◽  
The Right

This chapter lays out the book’s central question: Assuming agency reductionism—that is, the thesis that the causal role of the agent in all agential activities is reducible to the causal role of states and events involving the agent—is it possible to construct a defensible model of libertarianism? It is explained that most think the answer is negative and this is because they think libertarians must embrace some form of agent-causation in order to address the problems of luck and enhanced control. The thesis of the book is that these philosophers are mistaken: it is possible to construct a libertarian model of free will and moral responsibility within an agency reductionist framework that silences that central objections to libertarianism by simply taking the best compatibilist model of freedom and adding indeterminism in the right junctures of human agency. A brief summary of the chapters to follow is given.

Two Libertarian Theories: or Why Event-causal Libertarians Should Prefer My Daring Libertarian View to Robert Kane's View

2017 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Alfred R. Mele
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Agent Causation ◽  
Indeterministic Causation ◽  
Free Actions ◽  
Libertarian View

AbstractLibertarianism about free will is the conjunction of two theses: the existence of free will is incompatible with the truth of determinism, and at least some human beings sometimes exercise free will (or act freely, for short).1 Some libertarian views feature agent causation, others maintain that free actions are uncaused, and yet others – event-causal libertarian views – reject all views of these two kinds and appeal to indeterministic causation by events and states.2 This article explores the relative merits of two different views of this third kind. One is Robert Kane's prominent view, and the other is the ‘daring libertarian’ view that I floated in Free Will and Luck.3 (I labeled the view ‘daring’ to distinguish it from a more modest libertarian view that I floated a decade earlier.)4 I say ‘floated’ because I am not a libertarian. I do not endorse incompatibilism; instead, I am agnostic about it. But if I were a libertarian, I would embrace my daring libertarian view (or DLV, for short). This article's thesis is that event-causal libertarians should prefer DLV to Kane's ‘dual or multiple efforts’ view.5

Status of Family Fissidentaceae in Gujarat

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.G. Shah ◽  
D.N. Mehta ◽  
R.V. Gujar
Keyword(s):  
Distinct Species ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Land Plants ◽  
Reproductive Structures ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Status ◽  
Vegetative Characters ◽  
First Time ◽  
Different Parts

Bryophytes are the second largest group of land plants and are also known as the amphibians of the plant kingdom. 67 species of bryophytes have been reported from select locations across the state of Gujrat. The status of family fissidentaceae which is a large moss family is being presented in this paper. Globally the family consists of 10 genera but only one genus, Fissidens Hedw. has been collected from Gujarat. Fissidens is characterized by a unique leaf structure and shows the presence of three distinct lamina, the dorsal, the ventral and the vaginant lamina. A total of 8 species of Fissidens have been reported from the state based on vegetative characters as no sporophyte stages were collected earlier. Species reported from the neighboring states also showed the absence of sporophytes. The identification of different species was difficult due to substantial overlap in vegetative characters. Hence a detailed study on the diversity of members of Fissidentaceae in Gujarat was carried out between November 2013 and February 2015. In present study 8 distinct species of Fissidens have been collected from different parts of the state. Three species Fissidens splachnobryoides Broth., Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens curvato-involutus Dixon. have been identified while the other five are still to be identified. Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens xiphoides M. Fleisch., which have been reported as distinct species are actually synonyms according to TROPICOS database. The presence of sexual reproductive structures and sporophytes for several Fissidens species are also being reported for the first time from the state.

The Inner Rational Agent

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sugden
Keyword(s):  
Human Agency ◽  
Welfare Economics ◽  
Rational Agent ◽  
Empirical Content ◽  
Normative Economics ◽  
Normative Analysis ◽  
True Preference ◽  
Implicit Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Psychological Foundation

Chapter 4 reviews ‘behavioural welfare economics’—the approach to normative analysis that is favoured by most behavioural economists. This approach assumes that people have context-independent ‘true’ or ‘latent’ preferences which, because of psychologically-induced errors, are not always revealed in actual choices. Behavioural welfare economics aims to reconstruct latent preferences by identifying and removing the effects of error on decisions, and to design policies to satisfy those preferences. Its implicit model of human agency is of an ‘inner rational agent’ that interacts with the world through an imperfect psychological ‘shell’. I argue that there is no satisfactory evidence to support this model, and no credible psychological foundation for it. Since the concept of true preference has no empirical content, the idea that such preferences can be reconstructed is a mirage. Normative economics needs to be more radical in giving up rationality assumptions.

Ezekiel’s Map of Future Past

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Sulzbach
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Temple

Attention to the spatial elements in the book of Ezekiel reveal a coherent plan that maps sin onto the spaces of city and temple which become the focus of correction in the visionary chapters that end the book (chs. 40–48). The book displays great disdain for all urban settings, including foreign cities, for their corrupt politics, trade and crime. These charges especially apply to Jerusalem. The temple also exhibits similar corruption in terms of personnel, iconography and impurity. The final vision reaches back first into the pre-urban history of Judah, the wilderness period, in order to find a setting free from such corruptions, but ultimately it returns to an Eden-like state as the only viable solution to the problems of innate sin and desecration. This is an Eden with no free-will and no human agency, the only way to safeguard sacred space.

Autonomy and Addiction

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Levy
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reasons Responsiveness ◽  
Extended Agency ◽  
Conception Of The Good ◽  
Autonomous Agency ◽  
The Way

Whatever its implications for the other features of human agency at its best — for moral responsibility, reasons-responsiveness, self-realization, flourishing, and so on—addiction is universally recognized as impairing autonomy. But philosophers have frequently misunderstood the nature of addiction, and therefore have not adequately explained the manner in which it impairs autonomy. Once we recognize that addiction is not incompatible with choice or volition, it becomes clear that none of the Standard accounts of autonomy can satisfactorily explain the way in which it undermines fully autonomous agency. In order to understand to what extent and in what ways the addicted are autonomy-impaired, we need to understand autonomy as consisting, essentially, in the exercise of the capacity for extended agency. It is because addiction undermines extended agency, so that addicts are not able to integrate their lives and pursue a Single conception of the good, that it impairs autonomy.

A new Species of Cicadulina, China (Homoptera, Jassidae) injurious to Maize in Tanganyika Territory

1936 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. China
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
The Gambia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Colour Pattern ◽  
Streak Virus ◽  
Research Station ◽  
Two New Species ◽  
A New Species

The genus Cicadulina was established in 1926 (Bull. Ent. Res. 17, p. 43) to hold a new species, C. zeae, China, injurious to maize in Kenya Colony. Later (Bull. Ent. Res., 19, 1928, p. 66) it was shown that Balclutha mbila, Naude, recorded as transmitting the virus of streak disease of maize in Natal, also belonged to this genus, and two new species C. arachidis and C. similis were described from the Gambia, where they were reported as injurious to ground-nut and suspected of transmitting the virus of the rosette disease of that plant. Since that time Dr. H. H. Storey of the Amani Research Station has been investigating the possibility of transmission of the streak virus of maize by C. zeae. In attempting to breed strains capable of transmission of the disease certain crosses were made which showed conclusively that he was dealing with two distinct species. These species he was able to separate on the colour pattern of the abdomen. Dr. Storey has now sent to me material of both these species and a study of the genitalia corroborates his finding. One, of course, proved to be C. zeae, the other is new and I therefore propose to dedicate it to the discoverer.

scholarly journals Motivational Situations of Choice

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Elliott ◽  
◽  
Paul Story ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Time Constraints ◽  
External Regulation ◽  
Extra Credit ◽  
Instructor Feedback ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Regulation Strategies

The present research explores situations that demonstrate enhancing effects on motivation based on the amount of choice seen by individuals. Individuals who are intrinsically motivated see more choice in certain academic settings, including those that foster self-regulation and autonomy. Extrinsically motivated individuals are predicted to see more promise in reward and external regulation strategies. We identified six separate situations: a free will situation, a learning of materials situation, an instructor feedback situation, an extra credit situation, and two time-based situations. Four of these situations target a certain type of motivation, either intrinsic or extrinsic. The other two situations were used as a means to analyze pressure and tension due to time constraints. The goal of the present research was to identify correlations in these crafted situations with motivational measures from previous studies which examined choice and autonomy.

On the Ascaris from Sheep

1926 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Goodey
Keyword(s):  
Small Intestine ◽  
Ascaris Lumbricoides ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
The Other ◽  
Single Specimen ◽  
Specific Identity

Worms belonging to the genus Ascaris occur occasionally in the small intestine of sheep and lambs and have been reported both in Europe and America. They have been considered by some to belong to a distinct species, namely Ascaris ovis Rudolphi, and by others to be identical with Ascaris lumbricoides Linnaeus. The question of their specific identity is an interesting one and could not be considered as definitely settled one way or the other and though possibly the majority of helmin-thologists would subscribe to the view that the species is A. lumbricoides (vide Ransom 1911, p.25, and Ransom and Foster 1920, p. 30), others hold a different view; in fact Neuveu-Lemaire (1923) has recently published a paper in which he describes a single specimen of Ascaris from a goat as Ascaris ovis.

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