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What did you do a moment ago? What will you do after you read this? Are you in charge of your actions and decisions, or is your life following a script? Free will is such an important topic that it can feel overwhelming. In
Free Will: An Opinionated Guide leading free-will expert Alfred R. Mele answers the big questions through engaging thought experiments, and provides a lively, beginner-friendly tour of the most prominent theories, puzzles, and arguments about free will.
List of contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1. Getting Started
- Chapter 2. A Straight Perspective on Free Will
- Chapter 3. Alternative Possibilities, Frankfurt-Style Stories, and the Consequence Argument
- Chapter 4. A Whirlwind Tour of a Mixed Perspective on Free Will
- Chapter 5. Exploring a Mixed Conception of Free Will
- Chapter 6. Some Sources of Skepticism about Free Will
- Chapter 7. More Skeptical Arguments
- Chapter 8. Free Will and Neuroscience
- Chapter 9. Wrapping Things up
About the author
Alfred R. Mele is the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is the author of twelve previous books and over 200 articles and editor of seven books. He is past director of two multi-million dollar, interdisciplinary projects: the Big Questions in Free Will project (2010-13) and the Philosophy and Science of Self-Control project (2014-17).
Summary
This opinionated guide to free will offers a clear and straightfoward introduction to a vexing topic, from an internationally recognized authority on free will.
What did you do a moment ago? What will you do after you read this? Are you deciding as we speak, or is something else going on in your brain or elsewhere in your body that is determining your actions? Stopping to think this way can freeze us in our tracks. A lot in the world feels far beyond our control--the last thing we need is to question whether we make our own choices in the way we usually assume we do. Questions about free will are so major and consequential that we may prefer not to think about them at all, lest we feel completely lost and unsure of everything we thought we knew!
Free will is certainly important, but it does not need to be daunting. Free Will: An Opinionated Guide offers a clear and straightforward introduction to this vexing topic. Drawing on decades of extensive research in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology, internationally recognized authority on free will Alfred R. Mele explains and explores the most prominent theories, puzzles, and arguments about free will, all the while presenting his own distinctive take on the topic.
Mele's use of attention-grabbing thought experiments brings deep philosophical issues to life. He tackles the questions already on readers' minds and some they will encounter for the first time, on topics like determinism, neuroscience, and control. Whether this is the only book on free will you will read, or just the beginning of a deeper investigation, you will never think about free will, or the decisions you believe you're making, in the same ways again.
Additional text
In this vibrant, succinctly written book, Mele (Florida State Univ.) takes readers on a philosophical journey that provides "a good feel for the interesting issues, options, and arguments that need to be dealt with in any respectable attempt to arrive at a bottom line on free will."...Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; general readers.
