Will Powers: A Libertarian Free Will Model

Libertarian free will is the view that agents, rather than being determined by external factors beyond their control, can choose for themselves, among various possibilities, how they will act. Libertarians about free will are divided into factions: event-causal libertarians say that these actions are caused by agent-involving events such as an agent’s reasons, desires, efforts and intentions, while agent-causal libertarians say actions are caused by agents-qua-agents. Both models have their merits and demerits, and despite their internecine disputes, share much in common. In this paper I introduce a hybrid model that not only reconciles their differences, but also preserves the virtues while overcoming the vices of both models.