Agent Causation as the Solution to All the Compatibilist's Problems

Ned Markosian

In a recent paper, I argued that agent causation theorists should be compatibilists. In this paper, I argue that compatibilists should be agent causation theorists. I consider three of the main problems facing compatibilism: (i) the powerful intuition that I can't be responsible for actions that were somehow determined before I was born, (ii) Peter van Inwagen's modal argument (the one involving the inference rule Beta), and (iii) the objection to compatibilism that is based on claiming that the ability to do otherwise is a necessary condition for freedom. And in the case of each of these problems, I argue that the compatibilist has a much more plausible response to that problem if she endorses the theory of agent causation than she does otherwise.