The point here is to demonstrate how far liberal theory can distance itself from the abstract, unworldly, trivial philosophical navel-gazing that current critiques have to offer. Rather than merely su
Carl Jung coined the term “synchronicity” to describe meaningful coincidences that conventional notions of time and causality cannot explain. Working with the great quantum physicist Wolf
Most people assume that, even though some degenerative or criminal behavior may be caused by influences beyond our control, ordinary human actions are not similarly generated, but rather are freely chosen, and we can be praiseworthy or blameworthy for them. A less popular and more radical claim is that factors beyond our control produce all of the actions we perform. It is this hard determinist stance that Derk Pereboom articulates in Living Without Free Will. Pereboom argues that our best scientific theories have the consequence that factors beyond our control produce all of the actions we perform, and that because of this, we are not morally responsible for any of them. He seeks to defend the view that morality, meaning and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible, and furthermore, that adopting this perspective would provide significant benefit for our lives.
Free will remains one of the great problems in philosophy. Whether human choices and actions are causally determined or in some way free and the implications of opting for one position or the other on
A companion volume to Free Will: A Philosophical Study, this new anthology collects influential essays on free will, including both well-known contemporary classics and exciting recent work. Agency an
Kierkegaard and Freedom is a critical exploration of the ideas of Kierkegaard on the various problems surrounding the issue of human freedom. Kierkegaard's views here have been largely ignored by mode
This work offers a new understanding of Kant on the freedom of the will. Voeller looks in detail at the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason against the backgro
This is the first comprehensive interpretation of John Locke's solution to one of philosophy's most enduring problems: free will and the nature of human agency. Many assume that Locke defines freedom
Do human beings truly possess the capacity to initiate their own conduct? How does this matter in politics and public policy? In this book, Tibor Machan takes a fresh look at the age-old question of n
John McCumber asserts that the true target of philosophical liberation is to break the structures of domination that have been encoded in western civilization. Because of the emancipatory nature of th
In this comprehensive new study of human free agency, Laura Waddell Ekstrom critically surveys contemporary philosophical literature and provides a novel account of the conditions for free action. Eks
Arguing that philosophical discussion of human freedom has been transformed by developments in modern science, especially evolutionary biology, the author outlines a naturalistic account of freedom an
Written in 1839 and chosen as the winning entry in a competition held by the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences, Schopenhauer's Prize Essay on the Freedom of the Will marked the beginning of its author's public recognition and is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant and elegant treatments of free will and determinism. Schopenhauer distinguishes the freedom of acting from the freedom of willing, affirming the former while denying the latter. He portrays human action as thoroughly determined but also argues that the freedom which cannot be established in the sphere of human action is preserved at the level of our innermost being as individuated will, whose reality transcends all dependency on outside factors. This volume offers the text in a previously unpublished translation by Eric F. J. Payne, the leading twentieth-century translator of Schopenhauer into English, together with a historical and philosophical introduction by Günter Zöller.
Do human beings ever act freely, and if so what does freedom mean? Is everything that happens antecedently caused, and if so how is freedom possible? Is it right, even for God, to punish people for things that they cannot help doing? This volume presents the famous seventeenth-century controversy in which Thomas Hobbes and John Bramhall debate these questions and others. The complete texts of their initial contributions to the debate are included, together with selections from their subsequent replies to one another and from other works of Hobbes, in a collection that offers an illuminating commentary on issues still of concern to philosophers today. The volume is completed by a historical and philosophical introduction that explains the context in which the debate took place.
What is the place of human free will in our lives if all our actions are the result of some other cause? Does our processing unconscious beliefs or desires make us less free? Is our free will necessa
Robert Kane provides a critical overview of debates about free will of the past half century, relating this recent inquiry to the broader history of the free will issue and to vital currents of twenti
A lucky charm you can read, The Good Luck Book is a delightfully uplifting collection of quotes, stories, anecdotes, parables, tips, customs, rumors, and facts about good luck and how to get it. Ther
This book explores Eastern and Western ideas of freedom and reveals the essential differences, as well as similarities, between Eastern and Western cultural values. Inspired by an ancient Greek myth r
