Responsibility, History, and Authenticity

There is a debate in the literature on free will and responsibility regarding whether responsibility is historical. The focus is on what makes one’s values, desires, beliefs, and other springs of action authentic or “truly one’s own”, and what effect, if any, past manipulation has on authenticity. In this thesis, I present and attempt to clarify fundamental concepts, and give a critical account of prominent theories and motivating cases. I propose constraints on theories of responsibility, including a generalized regress problem affecting “positive” historical theories, and argue for a characterization of springs on which springs of the same type are treated as identical. I conclude by presenting a sketch of a historical theory of responsibility which conforms to my proposed constraints.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Katcharov, Maxim

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Haji, Ishtiyaque

• Philosophy

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/27652

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:11023/665