Synopses & Reviews
According to the libertarian position on free will, people sometimes exercise free will, but this freedom is incompatible with the truth of causal determinism. Frequently maligned within the history of philosophy, this view has recently gained increasingly sympathetic attention among philosophers. But stark questions remain: How plausible is this view? If our actions are not causally determined, how can we have control over them? Why should we want our actions to be breaks in the deterministic causal chain?
The recent resurgence of interest in libertarianism is due, most significantly, to Robert Kane, who is the leading contemporary defender of this view of free will. This book is a collection of new essays on the libertarian position on free will and related issues that focuses specifically on the views of Kane. Written by a distinguished group of philosophers, the essays cover various areas of philosophy including metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of mind. Kane contributes a final essay, replying to the criticisms offered in the previous chapters and developing his view in new directions.
About the Author
David Palmer is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of Tennessee. He specializes in ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of action. He has published on the topics of free will, moral responsibility, and applied ethics.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Contributors
1. Free will, libertarianism, and Kane
David Palmer
Part I: Libertarian Theories of Free Will
2. Can an indeterministic cause leave a choice up to the agent?
Carl Ginet
3. Free will and metaphysics
Timothy O'Connor
Part II: The Luck Objection
4. Kane, luck, and control: Trying to get by without too much effort
Alfred Mele
5. Toward a solution to the luck problem
John Martin Fischer
Part III: Incompatibilism and Omissions
6. Compatibilist ultimacy: Resisting the threat of Kane's U condition
Michael McKenna
7. The direct argument for incompatibilism
David Widerker and Ira M. Schnall
8. Freedom, responsibility, and omitting to act
Randolph Clarke
Part IV: The Significance of Free Will
9. Responsibility for emotions, alternative possibilities, and reasons
Ishtiyaque Haji
10. Moral responsibility, the reactive attitudes, and the significance of
(libertarian) free will
Dana Kay Nelkin
11. The dialectic of selfhood and the significance of free will
Derk Pereboom
Part V: Kane's Reply
12. New arguments in debates on libertarian free will: Responses to contributors
Robert Kane
References
Index