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"A magisterial work (that) culminates twenty-five years of thinking about the problems of free will. For those who believe both that robust free will cannot survive in a deterministic climate and that a viable free will need be scientifically respectable, Kane's work may prove salvific." -- Mark Bernstein, University of Texas at San Antonio. In the past quarter-century, there has been a resurgence of interest in philosophical questions about free will. After a clear and broad-reaching survey of these recent debates, Robert Kane presents his own controversial view. Arguing persuasively for a traditional incompatibilist or libertarian conception of free will, Kane demonstrates that such a conception can be made intelligible without appeals to obscure or mysterious forms of agency and thus can be reconciled with a contemporary scientific picture of the world.
List of contents
- 1: Introduction
- I. The Ascent Problem:Compatibility and Significance
- 2: Will
- 3: Responsibility
- 4: Alternative Possibilities
- 5: Ultimate Responsibility
- 6: Significance
- II. The Descent Problem: Intelligibility and Existence
- 7: Plurality and Indeterminism
- 8: Moral and Prudential Choice
- 9: Efforts, Purposes, and Practical Reason
- 10: Objections and Responses
- 11: Conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
This is a paperback reprint of a cloth edition. Kane explores the significance of recent work about free will for contemporary concerns in ethics, politics, science, and religion, and also defends a "libertarian" conception of free wlil in a way that responds to contemporary scientific learning.
Additional text
This is, quite simply, the most thoughtful and detailed defense of libertarianism currently available.
