Harry Frankfurt
One can be responsible without having been able to do otherwise; being free is wanting what one wants to want.
Life
American philosopher (1929-2023), professor at Yale and then Princeton. He reshaped the free-will debate by arguing that one can be morally responsible for an act even if one could not have done otherwise, and that freedom of the will consists in being able to want what one wants to want. The general public also knows him for his short essay On Bullshit.
Main works
One can be responsible without having been able to do otherwise.
A person is defined by second-order volitions: wanting to want.
A 1986 essay that became a bestselling book in 2005: bullshit differs from lying by its indifference to truth.
In his own words
« But the principle of alternate possibilities is false. A person may well be morally responsible for what he has done even though he could not have done otherwise. »
« the statement that a person enjoys freedom of the will means (also roughly) that he is free to want what he wants to want. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceOne can be responsible without being able to do otherwise; freedom is acting on the will one wants to have.
Frankfurt, 'Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility' (1969); 'Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person' (1971)
What we love and care about is the source of our reasons, more than rules or outcomes.
Frankfurt, The Reasons of Love (2004)
Life gets its meaning from what we care about and love, not from a given purpose.
Frankfurt, The Importance of What We Care About (1988)