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Free Will: A Guide for the Perplexed
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Description
In everyday life, we often suppose ourselves to be free to choose between several courses of action. But if we examine further, we find that this view seems to rest on metaphysical and meta-ethical presuppositions almost all of which look problematic.
How can we be free if everything is determined by factors beyond our control, stretching back in time to the Big Bang and the laws of nature operating then? The only alternative to determinism is indeterminism, but is not indeterminism just there being a certain amount of randomness in the world? Does not randomness hinder you from being the author of your actions?
Free Will: A Guide for the Perplexed looks at how much of the structure of our everyday judgments can survive the arguments behind such questions and thoughts. In doing so, it explores the alternative arguments that have been advanced concerning free will and related notions, including an up-to-date overview of the contemporary debates. In essence, the book seeks to understand and answer the age-old question, 'What is free will and do we have it?'
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
What is the problem of free will?
2. Our Experience of Choice
What our everyday experience suggests about the existence and nature of free will
3. Incompatibilism
Some classic and some modern arguments for and against the view that we can't have free will if we live in a deterministic universe
4. Indeterminism
Whether we have reason to suppose our universe is deterministic; whether we have reason to suppose it is not; or whether we don't have reason either way
5. Ultimate Authorship
How we might be the ultimate authors of our actions
6. Conclusion
How we are as we supposed ourselves to be
Glossary
Further Reading
Notes
Product details
Published | 18 Jun 2022 |
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Format | Paperback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 208 |
ISBN | 9789354359279 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic India |
Dimensions | 216 x 153 mm |
Series | Guides for the Perplexed |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd |
About the contributors
Reviews
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"An engagingly-written and thought-provoking introduction to the free will problem, full of innovative examples and arguments; and at the same time an original defense of a distinctive libertarian view of free will." -- Robert Kane, University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Professor of Law at The University of Texas at Austin, and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Free Will.
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"Stimulating and engaging: Mawson is a genial guide, drawing the reader into an extended conversation on a perennially perplexing problem of philosophy. The standard ground is covered, but with regular original touches - and, if perplexity is not removed altogether by Mawson's common sense defence of an agent-causalist libertarianism, at least it will be a perplexity better understood." -- John Bishop, Professor of Philosophy, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
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Timothy Mawson's book is a valuable contribution to this series, introducing the reader to the fascinating but often complex philosophical issues pertaining to the discussion of free will.
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