Harry Frankfurt's New Compatibilism

The relationship between determinism and freedom has always been a hot topic in the philosophical area,and Harry Frankfurt's theory,representative of the new compatibilism,is of great importance.The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Frankfurt's new compatibility theory on the basis of detailed study of it and put forward my own suggestions for improvement.The article mainly includes three chapters.The first chapter summarizes the main controversies about the relationship between causative determinism and freedom since the 17th century.The incompatibilists put forward the"consequence argument" to prove that the determinism and freedom cannot be true at the same time.But the compatibilists advocate that on the premise of determinism freedom will still exist.The compatibilism since the 17th century mainly includes the classical compatibilism and the new compatibilism.The second chapter discusses the main content of Frankfurt's new compatibilism theories in detail---"Frankfurt--style counterexamples" and "hierarchical desire theories".Of these two theories,the former one objects the traditional understanding that "freedom needs AP principle as necessary condition"By proving the wrongness of the PAP principle.Meanwhile,the latter one are further explanations of the principle that" the actor must be the fundamental source of action"in the traditional understanding."Frankfurt-style counterexamples" are challenged by the "flickers of freedom stratergy" and "dilemma defense".Martin Fisher responds to the "flickers of freedom stratergy",while other compatibilists respond to the threat of "dilemma defense" by reconstructing Frankfurt-style counterexamples,including"No-prior-sign examples","Blockage examples","Internal-sign examples'" and"necessary-condition examples".As to the threat of "infinite back problem","local challenge"and "comprehensive chanllenge",Frankfurt and his supporters give some effective responses to defend "hierarchical desire theories".The third chapter is focused on the evaluation of Frankfurt's new compatibilism theories and some of my advices to avoid the limitations of them.Through the respective discussion of the two principles in the traditional understanding of freedom Frankfurt effectively demonstrates the compatibility between determinism and freedom,and his theories themselves are consistent and integral.Despite the advantages,his theories still have some limitations,including the lack of detailed discussion about the relationship between moral responsibility and free will.I think that although free will is a necessary condition for moral responsibility,it is not the only one and that moral responsibility also needs another necessary condition that "the behavior of the agent must be social".