Free Will

by Ekstrom, Laura Waddell

• ISBN13: 9780813390949
• ISBN10: 081339094X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Harpercollins

Summary

The question of what image it is appropriate to have of one's self and of other human beings is deeply connected to the issue of how free it is possible for us to be in our acts. Often our judgments concerning what attitude it is appropriate to take toward others depend upon how free we estimate their behavior to be. Did the person who just knocked me over push me of his own free will or did he accidentally slip? Resentment seems appropriate in the first case; understanding, in the second. Our judgments of the appropriateness of our attitudes toward ourselves, as well, often turn open considerations of free control. Ought we to view our failures and successes with guilt and pride? Or should we have a more detached view of ourselves, as ones so profoundly shaped by genetic and environmental factors that our behaviors are more reactions to various causal determinants than acts freely undertaken by genuine autonomous selves?Free Willis designed both to highlight central issues in recent discussions of free will and to propose a particular indeterminist account of its nature. It begins by motivating the discussion of issues in the metaphysics of freedom by considering what is at stake: why care about free willwhat values would its possession secure for us? The book then critically discusses the arguments at the heart of the debate between compatibilists and incompatibilists and examines a number of competing accounts of the nature of free will, leading up to the proposal of a particular libertarian theory. Thereafter the book turns to pivotal issues in free will and moral responsibility literature, including diverging views of the function of moral responsibility ascriptions and "counterfactual intervener" counterexamples to the principle of alternate possibilities.While the book is an ideal text for students of philosophy, it is not only philosophers to whom the topic of free will is importantbecause of its connections with responsibility, autonomy, and causation, the concept of freedom is of interest, as well, to legal experts, political theorists, physicians, moral psychologists, and the general public. It is certain to be useful to all such individuals and their students.

Author Biography

Laura Waddell Ekstrom is associate professor of philosophy at The College of William and Mary.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Problem of Human Freedom	1	(20)
Skepticism Regarding Free Will	3	(1)
A Fundamental Source of Difficulty	4	(2)
The Significance of Free Will	6	(8)
Challenges to Free Will	14	(4)
Notes	18	(3)
Arguments for Incompatibilism	21	(34)
Alternative Possibilities	21	(2)
The Compatibility Question	23	(1)
Simple Arguments for Incompatibilism	24	(4)
Detailed Arguments	28	(9)
Compatibilist Replies	37	(14)
Conclusion	51	(1)
Notes	52	(3)
Compatibilist Arguments and Free Will Accounts	55	(26)
Positive Arguments for Compatibilism	56	(8)
Incompatibilist Replies	64	(6)
Compatibilist Conceptions of Freedom	70	(7)
New Directions	77	(2)
Notes	79	(2)
Varieties of Libertarianism	81	(58)
Libertarianism and Indeterminism	83	(3)
Competing Incompatibilist Accounts: T-1, A-C, and T-3 Theories	86	(20)
Undefeated Authorization of Preference	106	(10)
Challenges to the Proposed Indeterminist Model of Free Agency	116	(13)
Notes	129	(10)
The Concept of Moral Responsibility	139	(42)
The Function of Moral Responsibility Ascriptions	142	(11)
Accounts of Moral Responsibility	153	(20)
Conclusion	173	(1)
Notes	174	(7)
Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities	181	(40)
The Principle of Alternative Possibilities	182	(9)
The Failure of Frankfurt-Type Cases to Show the Falsity of PAP	191	(9)
Why PAP Is False	200	(4)
Incompatibilism Without PAP	204	(9)
Conclusions	213	(1)
Notes	214	(7)
References	221	(10)
Index	231