Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility

Contributions by Susan Blackmore, Thomas W. Clark, Mark Hallett, John-Dylan Haynes, Ted Honderich, Neil Levy, Thomas Nadelhoffer, Shaun Nichols, Michael Pauen, Derk Pereboom, Susan Pockett, Maureen Sie, Saul Smilansky, Galen Strawson, Daniela Goya Tocchetto, Manuel Vargas University of California, Benjamin Vilhauer, Bruce Waller Edited by Gregg D. Caruso professor of Philosophy at SUNY Corning and author of Rejecting Retributivi

Publication date:

05 July 2013

Length of book:

332 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

235x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739177310

Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility investigates the philosophical and scientific arguments for free will skepticism and their implications. Skepticism about free will and moral responsibility has been on the rise in recent years. In fact, a significant number of philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists now either doubt or outright deny the existence of free will and/or moral responsibility—and the list of prominent skeptics appears to grow by the day. Given the profound importance that the concepts of free will and moral responsibility hold in our lives—in understanding ourselves, society, and the law—it is important that we explore what is behind this new wave of skepticism. It is also important that we explore the potential consequences of skepticism for ourselves and society. Edited by Gregg D. Caruso, this collection of new essays brings together an internationally recognized line-up of contributors, most of whom hold skeptical positions of some sort, to display and explore the leading arguments for free will skepticism and to debate their implications.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility
Part 1: Philosophical Explorations: Free Will Skepticism and Its Implications
Chapter 1: Skepticism about Free Will
Chapter 2: The Impossibility of Ultimate Responsibility?
Chapter 3: Determinism, Incompatibilism and Compatibilism, Actual Consciousness and Subjective Physical Worlds, Humanity
Chapter 4: The Stubborn Illusion of Moral Responsibility
Chapter 5: Be a Skeptic, Not a Metaskeptic
Chapter 6: Free Will as a Case of “Crazy Ethics”
Chapter 7: The Potential Dark Side of Believing in Free Will (and Related Concepts): Some Preliminary Findings
Chapter 8: The People’s Problem
Chapter 9: Living Without Free Will
Chapter 10: If Free Will Doesn’t Exist, Neither Does Water
Chapter 11: Free Will and Error
Part 2: Scientific Explorations: The Behavioral, Cognitive, and Neurosciences
Chapter 12: The Complex Network of Intentions
Chapter 13: Experience and Autonomy: Why Consciousness Does and Doesn’t Matter
Chapter 14: What Does the Brain Know and When Does It Know It?
Chapter 15: If Free Will Did Not Exist, It Would be Necessary to Invent It
Chapter 16: Free Will, an Illusion? An Answer from a Pragmatic Sentimentalist Point of View
References
Index
About the Contributors

For those who have tuned out the free will literature, there are a few chapters that are novel and well worth your attention. Then for the free will aficionados, at least most of the chapters will be of interest. And for anyone considering assigning this book or portions of it for an upper-level or graduate course on free will, there are several chapters that will be informative and catch students up on much of the state of the debate. This is, in fact, one of the strengths of the collection; there is something here for everyone. ... On the whole, this collection is an excellent contribution to the ongoing free will debate. Those interested or engaged in that debate will find much to appreciate (or argue vociferously against), including those chapters that could not be fit into this review. And even for those readers who only occasionally re-acquaint themselves with this debate, there are certain chapters well worth their time.