Agents, Causes, and Events Essays on Indeterminism and Free Will

by O'Connor, Timothy

• ISBN13: 9780195091571
• ISBN10: 0195091574
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-02-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Many philosophers are persuaded by familiar arguments that free will is incompatible with causal determinism. Yet, notoriously, past attempts to articulate how the right type of indeterminism might secure the capacity for autonomous action have generally been regarded as either demonstrably inadequate or irremediably obscure. This volume gathers together the most significant recent discussions concerning the prospects for devising a satisfactory indeterministic account of freedom of action. These essays give greater precision to traditional formulations of the problems associated with indeterministic accounts and to the range of theoretical avenues for pursuing resolutions. The first four essays set out different challenges (from both compatibilists and those skeptical of the possibility of free will) to the adequacy of standard indeterministic theories. The next seven essays meet one or more of these challenges. Each of the fundamental types of approach--simple indeterminism, causal indeterminism, and agent causation--is represented in these novel and sophisticated proposals. The collection finishes with two essays that debate whether compatibilism entails that freedom of choice is a comparatively rare phenomenon within an individual's life. Eloquently presenting some of the most compelling and accessible arguments surrounding this central philosophical issue, Agents, Causes, and Events makes a valuable contribution to courses in free will/action theory and metaphysics.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Problems for Indeterministic Accounts of Free Will

Strawson/Libertarianism, Action and Self-Determination

Nagel/The Problem of Autonomy

Dennett/On Giving Libertarians What They Say They Want

Double/Libertarianism and Rationality

Indeterminism and Free Will: Contemporary Proposals

Ginet/Reason and Explanation of Action: An Incompatibilist Account

Chisholm/Agents, Causes and Events: The Problem of Free Will

Nozik/Choice and Indeterminism

Kane/Two Kinds of Incompatibilism

Rowe/Two Concepts of Freedom

O'Connor/Agent Causation

Clarke/Toward a Credible Agent-Causal Account of Free Will

Indeterminism and the Extent of Free Will

Peter Van Inwagen/When is the Will Free?

Fischer and Ravizza/When the Will is Free?

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