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List of contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1. Introduction
- Chapter 2. Internalism and Externalism
- Chapter 3. Instant Agents, Minutelings, and Radical Reversals
- Chapter 4. Must Compatibilists Be Internalists?
- Chapter 5. Bullet Biting and Beyond
- Chapter 6. Wrapping Things Up
- Appendix: Experimental Philosophy
- References
- Index
About the author
Alfred R. Mele is the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is the author of ten previous OUP books and over 200 articles and an editor of six OUP books. He is past director of two multi-million dollar, interdisciplinary projects: the Big Questions in Free Will project (2010-13) and the Philosophy and Science of Self-Control project (2014-17).
Summary
In Manipulated Agents, Alfred R. Mele examines the role one's history plays in whether or not one is morally responsible for one's actions. Mele develops a "history-sensitive" theory of moral responsibility through reflection on a wide range of thought experiments which feature agents who have been manipulated or designed in ways that directly affect their actions.
Additional text
Alfred Mele's Manipulated Agents is devoted solely to understanding what can be learned about moral responsibility by attending to cases of manipulated agents who, by various means, are manipulated into acquiring beliefs, desires, intentions, values, or principles. This brief, carefully-argued book is a joy to read. It will be easily accessible to those not steeped in the literature on free will and moral responsibility, but it will also pay off handsomely for those who have been working on these topics for years. While carefully examining a range of positions one might take, Mele himself defends a version of a historical theory according to which a person is a morally responsible agent only if her history does not include certain objectionable forms of manipulation.
