Selective Hard Compatibilism

This chapter takes up a well-known objection to the compatibilist position, which is “the manipulation argument” and related arguments based on covert control. It is argued that we should reject soft compatibilist responses to cases of this kind that rely on considerations of “history” to exclude manipulated or covertly controlled agents from responsible agency. Instead a modified form of hard compatibilism is defended, one that grants something problematic about cases of this kind but rejects the claim that agents in these conditions are not responsible. The relevant issue is not that these agents are not responsible but that their manipulators or covert controllers are not entitled to hold them responsible. Selective hard compatibilism maintains that what is compromised in these circumstances is not the moral responsibility of the agent (where robust compatibilist conditions of a relevant kind are satisfied) but the participant stance or moral standing of their manipulators.