Abstract

This chapter offers a naturalistic defense of the reactive attitudes like moral anger. Incompatibilists maintain that if people came to believe in determinism, they would and should radically impact their everyday lives. First, the chapter argues that the predicted revolution is unlikely to come about, even if people come to accept determinism. Second, it argues that often there are ethical reasons to abandon the incompatibilist commitment rather than give up anger and other reactive attitudes surrounding moral responsibility. This provides reason to reject an unqualified hard incompatibilism. But the ultimate view the chapter suggests is a pluralist one on which hard incompatibilism is sometimes an appropriate view to adopt.