Derk Pereboom has advanced a four-case manipulation argument that, he claims, undermines both libertarian accounts of free
action not committed to agent-causation and compatibilist accounts of such action. The first two cases are meant to be ones
in which the key agent is not responsible for his actions owing to his being manipulated. We first consider a “hard-line”
response to this argument that denies that the agent is not morally responsible in these cases. We argue that this response
invites a dialectically uncharitable reading of the argument. We then propose an alternative interpretation; it affirms that,
at least prima facie, the manipulated agent in the first two cases is not responsible. Finally, we question Pereboom’s rationale
for why the manipulation in these cases subverts responsibility.
Keywords free will - moral responsibility - compatibilism - incompatibilism - manipulation - Pereboom’s four-case argument - ultimate origination