Arbiter — Compatibilism and Moral Responsibility

Step 4 — Config Generated · auto-refreshes every 5s
=== CLAIMS (24) ===

  C1: Free will is compatible with determinism.
       [logical] [FORMAL]

  C2: Every event, including human choices, is fully caused by prior states of the world plus the laws of nature.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]

  C3: Persons can still act freely in the sense relevant to agency and responsibility even if every event is fully caused by p
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C1, C2

  C4: Freedom does not require being an uncaused causer.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C1

  C5: Freedom does not require ultimate metaphysical independence from prior conditions.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C1

  C6: Freedom requires that actions flow from the agent's own deliberation, values, intentions, and reasoning processes withou
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C1, C4, C5

  C7: A person is free when they act because they want to.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C6

  C8: A person is free when they judge that they should act.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C6

  C9: A person is free when they can respond to reasons.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C6

  C10: Those mental states can themselves have deterministic causes.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C2, C7, C8, C9

  C11: Compatibilists typically reinterpret the ability to have done otherwise in a conditional or reasons-responsive sense.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C1

  C12: An agent could have done otherwise if they had wanted or decided otherwise.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C11

  C13: The relevant counterfactual is not that the entire past and laws could have remained fixed while the agent mysteriously 
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C11

  C14: The relevant counterfactual is that different internal states would have led to different actions.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C11

  C15: This reinterpretation preserves ordinary practices of praise, blame, punishment, and self-control.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C11, C12, C13, C14

  C16: Moral responsibility tracks whether the action expressed the agent's character and deliberation.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C15

  C17: Moral responsibility does not track whether the choice was metaphysically open in an indeterministic sense.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C15

  C18: The theory aims to avoid collapsing responsibility into randomness.
       [structural]

  C19: If indeterminism were required for free will, then choices would risk becoming partly a matter of chance rather than age
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C18

  C20: Choices that are partly a matter of chance rather than agency would not obviously be more responsible.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C19

  C21: Determinism does not eliminate control.
       [logical] [FORMAL]
       depends: C19, C20

  C22: Determinism can secure intelligibility, predictability, and the causal integration of agency.
       [structural] [FORMAL]
       depends: C21

  C23: Freedom consists in acting according to one's own reasons-sensitive psychological mechanisms.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C21

  C24: Freedom does not consist in being exempt from causation altogether.
       [definitional] [FORMAL]
       depends: C23


=== CONTRADICTIONS (7) ===

  [AMBIGUITY]
    A: Freedom requires that actions flow from the agent's own deliberation, values, intentions, and reason
    B: A person is free when they act because they want to.
    → The claims use different criteria for freedom: C6 gives a richer conditions-based account, while C7 reduces freedom to a

  [AMBIGUITY]
    A: Freedom requires that actions flow from the agent's own deliberation, values, intentions, and reason
    B: A person is free when they judge that they should act.
    → The claims use different criteria for freedom: C6 emphasizes deliberation and absence of coercion, while C8 singles out 

  [AMBIGUITY]
    A: Freedom requires that actions flow from the agent's own deliberation, values, intentions, and reason
    B: A person is free when they can respond to reasons.
    → The claims use different criteria for freedom: C6 gives a broader structural account, while C9 focuses on reasons-respon

  [AMBIGUITY]
    A: A person is free when they act because they want to.
    B: A person is free when they judge that they should act.
    → These claims point to different motivational bases for freedom (desire vs. practical judgment) without stating whether t

  [AMBIGUITY]
    A: A person is free when they act because they want to.
    B: A person is free when they can respond to reasons.
    → The relation between desire-based freedom and reasons-responsive freedom is left unclear; wanting to act is not obviousl

  [AMBIGUITY]
    A: A person is free when they judge that they should act.
    B: A person is free when they can respond to reasons.
    → The claims treat judgment-based freedom and reasons-responsiveness differently, but do not specify whether one is a subs

  [AMBIGUITY]
    A: Compatibilists typically reinterpret the ability to have done otherwise in a conditional or reasons-
    B: An agent could have done otherwise if they had wanted or decided otherwise.
    → The phrase 'could have done otherwise' is left somewhat underdetermined: it may be read as a strong alternate-possibilit


=== KEY TERMS (40) ===

  free will: The kind of freedom compatible with determinism: acting from one’s own reasons, deliberation, and in
  determinism: The thesis that every event, including human choices, is fully caused by prior states of the world p
  event: Anything that happens, including human choices, and so may fall under causal explanation.
  prior states of the world: Earlier conditions that causally contribute to later events and actions.
  laws of nature: The governing regularities or principles that, together with prior states, determine what occurs.
  agency: The capacity to act in a way that counts as one’s own doing, especially through reasons-responsive p
  moral responsibility: Responsibility that depends on whether an action expresses the agent’s character and deliberation, n
  freedom: Acting according to one’s own deliberation, values, intentions, reasoning, and reasons-sensitive psy
  uncaused causer: A source of action that initiates choices without being caused by anything prior; the theory denies 
  ultimate metaphysical independence: Being free from all prior conditions or causal dependence; the theory says freedom does not require 
  deliberation: The agent’s internal process of weighing reasons and deciding how to act.
  values: The agent’s evaluative commitments that help generate free action.
  intentions: The agent’s settled plans or purposive states that issue in action.
  reasoning processes: The mental processes by which an agent arrives at and supports action.
  coercion: External pressure that overrides the agent’s own will or reasons.
  compulsion: An internal or external force that drives action in a way that bypasses normal self-control.
  external manipulation: Interference by outside forces that controls the agent’s action rather than letting it arise from th
  compatibilism: The view that free will and determinism can both be true.
  ability to have done otherwise: A capacity understood conditionally: the agent could have acted differently if they had wanted or de
  conditional or reasons-responsive sense: A reinterpretation of alternative possibilities where different internal reasons or states would lea
  counterfactual: A hypothetical claim about what would happen if the agent’s internal states or circumstances were di
  internal states: The agent’s wants, decisions, and other inner conditions that can produce different actions.
  praise: A practice preserved by compatibilism because responsibility still tracks the agent’s own character 
  blame: A practice of holding an agent accountable for actions that express their character and deliberation
  punishment: Sanctioning the agent in ways justified by responsibility, even under determinism.
  self-control: The agent’s capacity to govern action through their own deliberative and reason-sensitive mechanisms
  character: The stable traits and dispositions that an action can express and that help ground responsibility.
  metaphysically open: Not fully settled by prior causes; the theory denies that responsibility requires this indeterminist
  indeterministic sense: A sense of alternative possibility in which events are not fixed by prior conditions and laws.
  randomness: Choice happening without sufficient agency or reasons, which the theory aims to avoid.
  chance: Uncontrolled occurrence that would make a choice partly non-agential if indeterminism were required.
  control: The agent’s effective governance of action through reasons-sensitive mechanisms, which determinism d
  intelligibility: The action’s being understandable in terms of reasons and causes.
  predictability: The action’s being, at least in principle, forecastable from prior conditions and laws.
  causal integration of agency: The embedding of agency within ordinary causal order rather than outside it.
  reasons-sensitive psychological mechanisms: Mental mechanisms that produce action in response to reasons; freedom consists in acting through the
  causation: The general relation of events being brought about by prior conditions; freedom does not require exe
  respond to reasons: To have one’s actions guided by reasons in a way that supports free agency.
  want: A motivating desire that, if present, can ground a person’s free action.
  judge that they should act: To form a practical assessment that one ought to do something, which can ground free action.

=== AGENT CAST (8) ===

  Proponent
    side: Proponent | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the Proponent for {{ topic.name }}, and you must defend T1-T5 using the theory’s own framework rather than importing libertarian standards. Us...

  Skeptic
    side: Skeptic | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the main attacker against {{ topic.name }}, and your primary line must be the counter-thesis: moral responsibility requires robust alternative...

  Steelman
    side: Neutral | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the Steelman for {{ topic.name }}, and your task is to rescue the strongest version of the theory by dropping whatever must be dropped to save...

  Generalist
    side: Neutral | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the Generalist referee for {{ topic.name }}, and you must take no side while stress-testing both sides equally. After each round, identify the...

  CausalInferenceCritic
    side: Skeptic | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the CausalInferenceCritic for {{ topic.name }}, a causal inference specialist who must interrogate whether the theory’s talk of prior states o...

  ActionTheoryProponent
    side: Proponent | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the ActionTheoryProponent for {{ topic.name }}, and you should defend T2 and T3 by giving the strongest action-theoretic account of freedom in...

  ModalResponsibilityAuditor
    side: Neutral | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the ModalResponsibilityAuditor for {{ topic.name }}, and your job is to audit T3 with modal and counterfactual precision rather than to advoca...

  EmpiricalOperationalizer
    side: Skeptic | provider: openai
    prompt: You are the EmpiricalOperationalizer for {{ topic.name }}, an empirical methodology critic who must press for operational definitions of reasons-sensi...


=== GATE RULES (7) ===

  [RULE-1] The claim that a person is free when they act because they want to is not stipulated as equivalent to the broader accoun

  [RULE-2] The claim that a person is free when they judge that they should act is not stipulated as equivalent to the broader acco

  [RULE-3] The claim that a person is free when they can respond to reasons is not stipulated as equivalent to the broader account 

  [RULE-4] The claims that a person is free when they act because they want to and that a person is free when they judge that they 

  [RULE-5] The claims that a person is free when they act because they want to and that a person is free when they can respond to r

  [RULE-6] The claims that a person is free when they judge that they should act and that a person is free when they can respond to

  [RULE-7] In this context, 'could have done otherwise' is to be read in the compatibilist conditional or reasons-responsive sense:


=== RUBRIC (5 criteria) ===

  R1: notation_fidelity
    Does the side engage compatibilism using the theory’s own vocabulary rather than slipping into libertarian terms? Look f

  R2: argument_survival
    After the opponent’s strongest rebuttal, do the core compatibilist claims still stand: that deterministic causation of b

  R3: concession_honesty
    Did the side honestly concede the real limits of its view: that compatibilist freedom is narrower than libertarian freed

  R4: same_past_same_laws_alternative_possibilities
    Does the side answer the central counter-thesis that moral responsibility requires robust alternative possibilities unde

  R5: compatibilist_definition_non_circularity
    Does the side avoid question-begging when it defines freedom as acting from one’s own reasons, values, and deliberation?