Free Will

Produktbeschreibung

Every day we seem to make and act upon all kinds of choices: some trivial, others so consequential that they change the course of one's life, or even the course of history. But are these choices really free, or are we compelled to act the way we do by factors beyond our control? Is the feeling that we could have made different decisions just an illusion? And if our choices are not free, is it legitimate to hold people morally responsible for their actions? Thomas Pink looks at the fundamental philosophical question of free will, critically examining the claim: If our actions are causally determined by events beyond our control, that means that we can never act freely, and so can never be held responsible for our actions. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1: The free will problem
2: Freedom as free will
3: Compatibilism and reason
4: Compatibilism and nature
5: Morality without freedom?
6: Libertarianism and scepticism
7: Self-determination and the will
8: Freedom and its place in nature 

Autoreninfo

Thomas Pink is Lecturer in Philosophy at King's College, London. He works mainly in ethics, philosophy of mind and action, political philosophy, and philosophy of law. He also works on medieval and early modern philosophy. His publications include The Psychology of Freedom (CUP, 1996), and the edited collection (with Martin Stone) Theories of Human Action and the Will (forthcoming). He is also an associate editor of Mind.