The direct argument: a study about the conceptual relations between determinism and moral responsibility

• Grant number: 19/12207-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Metaphysics
• Principal Investigator: Marco Antonio Caron Ruffino
• Grantee: Gabriel de Andrade Pagnozzi Maruchi
• Host Institution: Centro de Lógica, Epistemologia e História da Ciência (CLE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project is a study proposal about the conceptual relations between the thesis of determinism and the concept of moral responsibility by means of the direct argument. According to its proponents, if the thesis of nomological determinism is true, then our actions are consequence of the distant past and the laws of nature. But nobody is morally responsible for the laws of nature, or for the distant past. Therefore, we are not morally responsible for the consequence of those things, i.e., our present actions. But is the direct argument really establishing the incompatibility of determinism and moral responsibility? To answer the former question, the study proposal will be divided in three parts. The first part concerns the validity of the direct argument, which is the problem of knowing whether the deductive rules used in the argument are valid. The second part focuses on the soundness of the argument. Suppose that the argument is valid; are the premises true? Finally, the third part is about the cogency of the argument, dealing with the objections which say that the direct argument is just an ignoratio elenchi. (AU)