edited by Ted Honderich INTRODUCTION AND INDEX On offer here
eventually will be a good selection of the most important pieces of
writing on the various subjects in the philosophy of Determinism and
Freedom. The name of this philosophy might have been Determinism and
Free Will, since in
this context 'free will' is often used generally to mean the same as
'freedom'. In fact there is such a philosophical custom. It is better,
however, despite that disadvantage, to use the term 'free will'
in a particular way, for a particular kind of freedom -- for one
species included in the genus 'freedom'. This is what is also called
origination. The subjects in the
philosophy of Determinism and Freedom include the nature of causation,
the
different kind of freedom that is voluntariness rather than free will
or
orgination, and so on. For those who want a guide to the language of it all, some technical, try Determinism, Freedom and Free Will Philosophy -- The Terminology. Do you ask in what sense the selected and to a lesser extent the selected and the listed pieces are the 'most important'? You should. The answer is a pretty standard one, if not always made explicit. It is not easily given, and not easy to be brief about. Some things are included or listed because they are well-known or famous to philosophers generally and might be true -- true in the judgement of your guide. Some other writings, not many, are included because they might be true, necessarily again in the judgement of the guide -- without being well-known or famous. If there is something to be said for trying to go by the annointing judgements of a lot of other people, there is also something to be said for presenting one philosopher's more or less coherent view. There is the necessary and satisfactory upshot of this policy that what is included and listed does indeed include works by Guide that have not become famous. In the index
that follows some pieces, for good reason, are listed in more than one
section. In fact a good many pieces have a claim, at least a little, to
be listed in more sections than they are. Almost all the pieces, for
example, at least touch on the nature of causation and the truth of
determinism. 1 CAUSATION -- WHAT IS IT? Thomas Hobbes: Entire Causes and Their Only Possible Effects Thomas Hobbes: Causation Itself,
Determinism, and their Compatibility with Freedom Ted Honderich: Causality and
Causation -- the Fundamental Fact Plainly Explained David Hume: Causal Connection Is Constant
Conjunction 2 DETERMINISM, UNDERSTANDING IT Thomas Hobbes: Causation Itself,
Determinism, and their Compatibility with Freedom Ted Honderich: Mind Brain
Connection Ted Honderich: Mind and Brain
Explanation Derk Pereboom: Meaning in Life Without
Free Will 3 INDETERMINISM, UNDERSTANDING IT Robert Kane: Reflections on Free Will, Determinism and Indeterminism Ted Honderich: Mind the Guff -- John Searle's Thinking on Consciousness and Free Will Examined Thomas Nagel: Freedom and the View From
Nowhere 4 DETERMINISM OR INDETERMINISM -- WHICH IS TRUE? John Earman: Determinism: What
We Have Learned and What We Still
Don't Know David Hume: The Obviousness of the Truth of
Determinism
Thomas Nagel: Freedom and the View from Nowhere Derk Pereboom: Meaning in Life Without Free Will Peter Strawson: Freedom and Resentment 6
COMPATIBILISM -- FREEDOM AS VOLUNTARINESS Ansgar Beckermann: Free Will in a Natural
Order of the World Joseph Keim Campbell: Compatibilist
Alternatives Harry Frankfurt: Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility Thomas Hobbes: Causation Itself, Determinism, and their Compatibility with Freedom David Hume: Freedom Reconciled with Necessity Tomis Kapitan: Deliberation and
the Presumption of Open Alternatives Keith Lehrer: Freedom and the Power of Preference Alfred Mele: Agnostic Autonomism Peter Strawson: Freedom and Resentment John Martin Fischer & Mark Ravizza: Morally Responsible People Without a Freedom
7 INCOMPATIBILISM -- FREEDOM AS ORIGINATION OR FREE WILL AS WELL AS VOLUNTARINESS Bishop Bramhall: The Pretty Freedom of Thomas Hobbes that Goes With Necessity Richard Double: The Moral
Hardness of Libertarianism Ted
Honderich, Mind and Brain Explanation Ted Honderich, On Libet -- Is the
Mind Ahead of the Brain? Behind It? Robert Kane: Reflections on Free Will, Determinism and Indeterminism John Martin Fischer & Mark Ravizza: Morally Responsible People Without a Freedom Peter van Inwagen: The Mystery of Metaphysical Freedom Peter Van Inwagen: Van Inwagen on Free Will Ted Honderich: Mind the Guff -- John Searle on Consciousness and Freedom Examined Alfred Mele: Agnostic Autonomism Thomas Nagel: Freedom and the View from
Nowhere 8 NEITHER COMPATIBILISM NOR INCOMPATIBILISM Richard Double:
Misdirection
in the Philosophy of Mind Ted Honderich: After Compatibilism and Incompatibilism Shaun Nichols, Folk Intuitions on Free Will Saul Smilansky: Free Will, Fundamental
Dualism, and the Centrality of Illusion
Galen
Strawson: Free Will
Ted Honderich, How Free Are You? Ted Honderich: After Compatibilism and Incompatibilism
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