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Document Details : Title: Discussion with Harry Franfurt Subtitle: Responsibility in AUtonomy Undermining Circumstances Author(s): SIE, Maureen Journal: Ethical Perspectives Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Date: April 1998 Pages: 30-35 DOI: 10.2143/EP.5.1.563105 Abstract : In 1969 Prof. Frankfurt has introduced a famous class of counterexamples to the Principle of Alternate Possibilities. The principle that states that a person x is only responsible for an action y, if she could have done otherwise than y. In these examples a so called ‘counterfactual intervener’ figures that pre-empts all alternate possibilities counterfactually, that is, without actually intervening. Because this counterfactual intervener only looms passively in the background, x’s moral responsibility for y is not affected, whereas at the same time — by stipulation — x couldn’t have done otherwise than y. Hence, the Principle of Alternate Possibilities must be false. |
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