He was educated at christs college, finchley, where he developed a liking for grammar and an enduring devotion to english. Freedom and resentment and other essays researchgate. Strawson is close to a group of thinkers who share a view that william james would have called hard determinism, including richard double, ted honderich, derk pereboom, saul. Free will skepticism or hard determinism is an incompatibilist position which states that determinism is true and therefore we have no free will, and thus no moral responsibility. Pranab kumar sen and roop rekha verma indian council of philosophical research, 1. Download citation freedom and resentment and other essays by the time of his death in 2006, sir peter strawson was regarded as one of the worlds most. To purchase this ebook for personal use, or in paperback or hardback format. How do strawsons labels of optimist and pessimist correspond to the labels introduced in the final two paragraphs of the last section. In freedom and resentment 1962, the british philosopher p. Freedom and resentment, and other essays strawson, p. Strawson published his essay freedom and resentment, generating a wide range of discussion and criticism in the philosophical community and beyond. Free will ii harry frankfurt, freedom of the will and the concept of a person peter strawson, freedom and resentment unit iv. Freedom and resentment work by strawson britannica.
First published thirty years ago but long since unavailable, freedom and resentment collects some of strawsons most important work and is an ideal introduction to his thinking on such topics as the philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology and. Strawson, as you will see, divides his paper into numbered sections. Since the publication of peter strawsons highly influential essay freedom and resentment 1962, philosophers have increasingly understood moral responsibility in terms of our susceptibility to a range of moral emotions or reactive attitudes in response to expressions of good and ill will. Peter strawson said he could make no sense of ideas like free will and determinism. Although peter strawsons freedom and resentment was published 50 years ago and has been a widely discussed article,1 its main argument is still notoriously difficult to pin down.
This sounds like a story of my early life and first marriage. Pf strawsons free will naturalism washington state university. Strawson argues that there are two different sorts of attitudes that we can take towards a person. Strawson, moral responsibility, and the order of explanation. Strawson, freedom and resentment, proceedings of the british academy. In modern times this debate has received an enormous resurgence of interest and the contribution in 1962 by p. Galen strawson developed a basic argument which attempts to prove that free will and moral responsibility do not exist. Download pdf peter strawson free online new books in. Freedom and resentment was based on the lecture strawson gave on becoming a member of the british. It is an extensive version of the logical and simplistic standard argument against free will. He was especially active in the movement known as ordinary language philosophy.
Strawson skepticism naturalism free will moral responsibility. The debate is of central importance to recent developments in the free will literature and has shaped the way contemporary philosophers now approach the problem. In this regard he was one with those englishspeaking philosophers who, following ludwig wittgenstein, thought such questions were pseudoproblems to be dissolved by careful attention to actual language use. Strawson, freedom and resentment philpapers of prasads seven types of arguments, four target strawson s four above.
Edit pdf files with cutepdf editor a free online pdf editor, free cloudbased pdf reader. Introduction to philosophy richard holton free will iii. The strawsonian theory of moral responsibility the. What follows in this section is a brief outline of the origins and trajectory of reflection on moral responsibility in the western philosophical tradition. These are not the deep kantian categories, these are just things we knew all along. His more explicit concern was to look again at the question of whether determinism and freedom are consistent with one another by shifting attention to certain personal rather than moral attitudes, first of all gratitude and resentment. Freedom and resentment, and other essays hardcover january 1, 1974. Strawsons purpose is to dissolve the so called problem of determinism and responsibility. Blame is safe and healthy as it puts an active focus to circumstances and allows one to play with freedom, in the way ive already described.
This will be the final weekly discussion post of our second series of weekly discussions. Strawsons theory on moral responsibility outlined in freedom and resentment, focuses on the fact that he associated moral responsibility with. He wrote most notably about the philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology and the history of philosophy, especially kant. Introduction to philosophy richard holton free will. Feb 14, 2006 that golden age had no greater philosopher than sir peter strawson, who has died aged 86. Strawson s freedom and resentment 1960, galen strawson s the impossibility of moral responsibility 1994, and gary watsons responsibility and the limits of evil. Strawson always joked that he would turn to moral philosophy only when his powers were waning. I argue that by attending to a distinction among perspectives on the root causes of our reactive attitudes, we can better understand the bases and limitations of longstanding debates about free will and moral responsibility. Some philosophers say they do not know what the thesis of determinism is. Strawson 19192006, in his famous 1963 essay freedom and resentment offers an elaborate account of compatibilism vs.
This book is a collection of several essays and conferences. Mckennas alteration to the strawsonian theory of moral responsibility now allows strawsons theory to respond to the challenge posed by watson. Freedom and resentment and other essays strawson p. The strawsonian theory of moral responsibility the written word. Peter strawson was born on 23 november 1919, one of his schoolteacher parents four children. Of these, somethe pessimists perhapshold that if the thesis is true, then the concepts of moral obligation and responsibility really have no.
Strawson s famous, famous 1962 paper freedom and resentment. A critique of strawson adam laufer berman dickinson college. Free will and reactive attitudes perspectives on p. Strawsons work on moral responsibility is wellknown. This is one of my all time favourite philosophy papers, by far my favourite on the free will debate. In his unique style of argumentation on compatibilism vs. Freedom and resentment 1974, subject and predicate in logic and grammar 1974, and scepticism and naturalism. The second, by peter strawson, is harder to get a grip on. Resentment is personal and includes not one singular thing but a history.
See below for information about citations and references, and how to use them. Sir peter fredrick strawson peter fredrick strawson born 1919 was regarded as one of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th century. Peter strawson freedom and resentment research papers. Strawsons 1962 freedom and resentment has provoked a wide ride range of responses, both positive and negative, and an equally wide range of interpretations. Then you will be apt to feel, not just angry, but resentful towards them. Click to open peter strawsons article freedom and resentment tip. Philosophers give very different answers to these questions. Strawsons paper freedom and resentment really succeeds in undercutting the traditional debate about free will and suggests that the deepest source of our.
The correct form for the bibliographic reference element of a citation for the selected resource is shown in a variety of the most widelyaccepted citation styles below. Peter frederick strawson stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Strawson, freedom and resentment its the second case which strawson mentions and privilegeswhen we excuse someones behavior on the grounds of abnormality or lack of rational agencythat interests me. Peter strawsons paper, freedom and resentment did much to change the direction of the debate surrounding determinism. Strawson with the publication of his essay freedom and resentment has generated a wide range of discussion and criticism in the philosophical community. Sir peter fredrick strawson was born november 23, 1919. However, an important implication of the landmark freedom and resentment has gone. That golden age had no greater philosopher than sir peter strawson, who has died aged 86. In the end, he arrived at a kind of compatibilist or, as he says, optimist conclusion. But strawson has thought of a new move for compatibilism, at this point in the conversation. First published thirty years ago but long since unavailable, freedom and resentment collects some of strawson s most important work and is an ideal introduction to his thinking on such topics as the philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology and. Sir peter strawson, british philosopher who was a leading member of the ordinary language school of analytic philosophy during the 1950s and 60s. Do we ordinarily act with the right kind of freedom so that blame is justified. Strawson himself calls his intellectual autobiography, marking the striking continuity between his life and his thought.
It may be argued that harris, although not a member of the moral community according to watson, has or had the ability to become a member of the moral community but chose not to become one. Strawson s descriptive metaphysics its scope and limits. For strawson, interpersonal relationships are so ingrained in our humanity and are so thoroughly important to us. Peter strawson, freedom and resentment 1974 by kristen. Strawson and pereboom 6 determinism are not compatible. Freedom and responsibility strawsonsfocus is on moral responsibility. His work was instrumental in reviving interest in metaphysics within angloamerican analytic philosophy in the mid20th century. Jan 01, 1974 by the time of his death in 2006, sir peter strawson was regarded as one of the worlds most distinguished philosophers. He was the waynflete professor of metaphysical philosophy at the university of oxford magdalen college from 1968 to 1987. Galen strawson the impossibility of moral responsibility received 15 september 1993 i there is an argument, which i will call the basic argument, which appears to prove that we cannot be truly or ultimately morally respon sible for our actions. Freedom and resentment and other essays by peter frederick.
Peter strawson s paper, freedom and resentment did much to change the direction of the debate surrounding determinism. First published thirty years ago but long since unavailable, freedom and resentment collects some of strawsons most important work and is an ideal introduction to his thinking on such topics as the philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology and aesthetics. We both treasured our freedom blamed one another for not having a better understanding of expectations upon wedding, and resented the outcome when we split up after a mere one and onehalf years of matrimonial hell. Strawson 19192006 introduced an influential version of compatibilism grounded in human psychology. Freedom and resentment wits institute for social and economic. This post will discuss strawsons theory of moral responsibility. Traditionally at least, a person is considered to be morally responsible for an action only if they did it of their own free will. Peter strawson does not mention freedom and resentment, focusing on strawsons work on philosophy of language, philosophical logic and metaphysics. In freedom and resentment, strawson proposes a commonsense argument for compatibilism. Sir peter strawson is one of the more interesting contemporaneous philosophers. Strawson observed that people display emotions such as resentment, anger, gratitude, and so on in response to the actions of others. Im really proud to be able to contribute to this series the original posts and the comments so far have been just great. Peter frederick strawson 19192006 was an oxfordbased philosopher whose career spanned the second half of the twentieth century.
The reader should also note two of strawsons early articles as extremely important works by strawson. The doyen of living english philosophers, by these reflections, took hold of and changed the outlook of a good many other philosophers, if not. Strawson argues that instead of approaching the problem of. This is because he has a reasonably small number of relatively discrete points to make, and the sections help the reader to see where the discussion. He wrote very little about that, but his main contribution, freedom and resentment strawson 1960, is perhaps now his most famous and widely discussed paper. In freedom and resentment, strawson attempts to reconcile two opposing. It will highlight how the theory has been challenged and then argue how the strawsonian theory is underdeveloped and not as coherent as it initially seems. She might also confront stan, or file a formal report, or else.
The philosophical debate about free will and responsibility has been of great importance throughout the history of philosophy. First published thirty years ago but long since unavailable, freedom and resentment collects some of strawson s most important work and is an ideal introduction to his thinking on such topics as the philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology and aesthetics. Miller arly in the secondperson standpoint, stephen darwall articulates a thesis that he takes p. According to the basic argument, it makes no difference whether determinism is true or false. Freedom and resentment was based on the lecture strawson gave on. On his view, when we engage in interpersonal relationships with others, we open ourselves up to experiencing certain emotions. View peter strawson freedom and resentment research papers on academia. Others say, or imply, that they do know what it is. Strawsons freedom and resentment 1960, galen strawsons the impossibility of moral responsibility 1994, and gary watsons responsibility and the limits of evil.