John Martin Fisher's Viewpoint Regarding the Necessary Free Will in Moral Responsibility

Free will، as the most pivotal human feature، on the one hand، has been considered، in the West، as the most fundamental condition of moral responsibility، and، on the other، based on the world being deterministic، has opposed determinism. A group of morality philosophers، believing in this opposition، have given the verdicts of exclusiveness to these two concepts، and another group، aiming to solve or repulse this opposition، have tried، with different methods، to make free will and determinism compatible، and they have proposed different statements regarding compatibility. The most important statement has been put forward by John Martin Fisher who suggests semi-compatibility. In his works، he regards free will in moral responsibility as a guiding control and does not consider alternative possibilities. The example of Frankfurt and other similar ones have been highly useful to Fisher in rejecting alternatives. In this paper، after briefly explaining the example of Frankfurt، Fisher’s semi-compatibility will be elaborated. Eventually، it appears that، although Fisher’s understanding has many advantages compared to other statements of compatibility، his ideas are more inclined toward determinism.