An Essay on Free Will

An Essay on Free Will

Author: Peter Van Inwagen

Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0198249241

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Discusses the incompatibility of the concepts of free will and determinism and argues that moral responsibility needs the doctrine of free will


Thinking about Free Will

Thinking about Free Will

Author: Peter van Inwagen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-03-16

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1107166500

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This volume brings together van Inwagen's most significant essays in this major field, addressing key topics and including two entirely new chapters.


Fate, Time, and Language

Fate, Time, and Language

Author: David Foster Wallace

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0231151578

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Presents David Foster Wallace critiques philosopher Richard Taylor's work implying that humans have no control over the future and includes essays linking Wallace's critique with his later works of fiction.


Our Fate

Our Fate

Author: John Martin Fischer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0199311293

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Our Fate collects John Martin Fischer's previously published articles on the relationship between God's foreknowledge and human freedom. The book includes a substantial new introductory essay that puts all of the chapters into a cohesive framework, and presents a bold new account of God's foreknowledge of free actions in a causally indeterministic world.


The Metasphysics of Free Will

The Metasphysics of Free Will

Author: John Martin Fischer

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 1995-10-09

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1557868573

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The Metaphysics of Free Will provides a through statement of the major grounds for skepticism about the reality of free will and moral responsibility. The author identifies and explains the sort of control that is associated with personhood and accountability, and shows how it is consistent with causal determinism. In so doing, out view of ourselves as morally responsible agents is protected against the disturbing changes posed by science and religion.


Free Will

Free Will

Author: Sam Harris

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-03-06

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 1451683405

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From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion. A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion. In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.


Four Views on Free Will

Four Views on Free Will

Author: John Martin Fischer

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-02-04

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1405182040

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Focusing on the concepts and interactions of free will, moralresponsibility, and determinism, this text represents the mostup-to-date account of the four major positions in the free willdebate. Four serious and well-known philosophers explore the opposingviewpoints of libertarianism, compatibilism, hard incompatibilism,and revisionism The first half of the book contains each philosopher’sexplanation of his particular view; the second half allows them todirectly respond to each other’s arguments, in a lively andengaging conversation Offers the reader a one of a kind, interactive discussion Forms part of the acclaimed Great Debates in Philosophyseries


Merit, Meaning, and Human Bondage

Merit, Meaning, and Human Bondage

Author: Nomy Arpaly

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-08-15

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 1400824508

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Perhaps everything we think, feel, and do is determined, and humans--like stones or clouds--are slaves to the laws of nature. Would that be a terrible state? Philosophers who take the incompatibilist position think so, arguing that a deterministic world would be one without moral responsibility and perhaps without true love, meaningful art, and real rationality. But compatibilists and semicompatibilists argue that determinism need not worry us. As long as our actions stem, in an appropriate way, from us, or respond in some way to reasons, our actions are meaningful and can be judged on their moral (or other) merit. In this highly original work, Nomy Arpaly argues that a deterministic world does not preclude moral responsibility, rationality, and love--in short, meaningful lives--but that there would still be something lamentable about a deterministic world. A person may respond well to reasons, and her actions may faithfully reflect her true self or values, but she may still feel that she is not free. Arpaly argues that compatibilists and semicompatibilists are wrong to dismiss this feeling--for which there are no philosophical consolations--as philosophically irrelevant. On the way to this bittersweet conclusion, Arpaly sets forth surprising theories about acting for reasons, the widely accepted idea that "ought implies can," moral blame, and more.


Judging and Understanding

Judging and Understanding

Author: Pedro Alexis Tabensky

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780754653950

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This collection embodies a debate that explores the tension between judging and understanding. It brings together work dealing with the moral, metaphysical, epistemological and phenomenological issues required for understanding whether or not there is a tension between judging and understanding and what the moral and legal implications may be of accepting or rejecting this tension.


Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem

Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem

Author: Mark Balaguer

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2012-01-13

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0262266156

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An argument that the problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In this largely antimetaphysical treatment of free will and determinism, Mark Balaguer argues that the philosophical problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In the course of his argument, Balaguer provides a naturalistic defense of the libertarian view of free will. The metaphysical component of the problem of free will, Balaguer argues, essentially boils down to the question of whether humans possess libertarian free will. Furthermore, he argues that, contrary to the traditional wisdom, the libertarian question reduces to a question about indeterminacy—in particular, to a straightforward empirical question about whether certain neural events in our heads are causally undetermined in a certain specific way; in other words, Balaguer argues that the right kind of indeterminacy would bring with it all of the other requirements for libertarian free will. Finally, he argues that because there is no good evidence as to whether or not the relevant neural events are undetermined in the way that's required, the question of whether human beings possess libertarian free will is a wide-open empirical question.