"Free Agency" Self-Quiz

. By a "free action," Watson means . . .

An action performed in an undetermined world.

An action that just isn't compulsive.

An action that matches one's intentions.

An action that issues from one's evaluative judgments.

. Which of the following best characterizes the worry some philosophers have raised for compatibilism?

Kleptomaniacs are determined but don't seem free

If determinism is true, one's second-order volitions can no longer be identified with one

There is no principled reason a determined person is free but a compulsive person isn't

It just doesn't seem intuitive

. On the Platonic model of practical reasoning . . .

Reason is purely instrumental.

Reason is a source of motivation, but a different one from Appetite.

Reason is a faculty of determining what is true or false, and has no motivational force.

Reason just is Appetite.

. Which of the following best characterizes the "evaluational system"?

One's viewpoint, from which one can at any moment become completely dissociated

One's practical standpoint, which yields judgments about what is overall best to do

One's set of factual beliefs that help one determine what would be most satisfying

The set of considerations that move one to action

. For Frankfurt, freedom of the will requires . . .

That one has second-order volitions about one's first-order desires.

That one is a wanton.

That one's evaluational system overlap, at least partly, with one's motivational system.

That one act according to her first-order volitions.

. Watson doesn't take himself to be offering a definitive defense of compatibilism.

True

False

. Watson advocates a Platonic conception of practical reasoning.

True

False

. For Watson, the possibility of unfree action arises because of the fact that evaluation and desire can diverge.

True

False

Quiz Content