Peter Strawson and the Facts of Agency

This chapter contrasts the approach to moral responsibility of Peter Strawson and that of Fischer and Ravizza. Fischer and Ravizza are in agreement that moral responsibility does not require that a certain metaphysical condition be met: that the agent have freedom to do otherwise. But whereas Strawson appears to hold that no freedom condition is required, the Fischer/Ravizza approach holds that moral responsibility does indeed require a certain kind of freedom: guidance control. It is argued that there are at least two important advantages of the Fischer/Ravizza approach: they can address a certain sort of skeptic (an incompatibilist about causal determinism and moral responsibility) on his own terms, and they have a reply to worries about manipulation.