Q-Source said:
That sounds to me as Free Will. When he decides that to kill somebody is his MPB, he is controlling his own destiny and he is determining the outcome of his future life (or path).
Perhaps there is another way to think about that very situation, Q-Source.
When a killer uses a gun to shoot a bullet at a victim, it is the bullet that actually does the killing. The killer and the gun can be several feet/yards away.
Is the bullet morally responsible for the death of the victim? I would claim that it is not morally responsible for two reasons. First, it is not a conscious entity and not applicable for moral decision making. Second, it had no choice (or free will, if you like) in the matter. It was a tool of the gun.
Is the gun morally responsible for the death of the victim? Like the bullet, the gun is not applicable as a conscious, moral entity and further, had no choice in the action. It was a tool of the killer.
Is the killer morally responsible for the death of the victim? To answer this we must look at the question from the two sides of our "free will/determinism" issue. In either case, we'll assume that the killer is a conscious entity and capable of moral decision-making. (edited to add: In hindsight of writing this post, that can't be true. In a completely deterministic universe, the killer would be incapable of making any decisions, even moral ones.)
free will: Having free will, the killer has the freedom to make the choice to use the gun, and therefore the bullet to kill the victim. In which case, the responsibility relies solely with the killer because no one/thing forced the killer into action. i.e., the killer was not a tool of anything but himself.
determinism: Under determinism, or fatalism, the killer had no choice in the matter. The killer used the gun and bullet because someone/thing (in this context, call it TLOP, if you like) forced him to use the gun and bullet to kill the victim. The killer was a tool of TLOP.
Continuing on with this line or reasoning, we see that with free will, the killer is responsible for the death of the victim. On the other hand, in a completely deterministic universe, it is TLOP/God/the Universe/whatever who is responsible for the death of the victim.
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