Agency And Responsiblity: Essays On The Metaphysics Of Freedom

by Laura Ekstrom

Overview

A companion volume to Free Will: A Philosophical Study, this new anthology collects influential essays on free will, including both well-known contemporary classics and exciting recent work. Agency and Responsibility: Essays on the Metaphysics of Freedom is divided into three parts. The essays in the first section address metaphysical issues concerning free will and causal determinism. The second section groups papers presenting a positive account of the nature of free action, including competing compatibilist and incompatibilist analyses. The third section concerns free will and moral responsibility, including theories of moral responsibility and the challenge to an alternative possibilities condition posed by Frankurt-type scenarios. Distinguished by its balance and consistently high quality, the volume presents papers selected for their significance, innovation, and clarity of expression. Contributors include Harry Frankfurt, Peter van Inwagen, David Lewis, Elizabeth Anscombe, John Martin Fischer, Michael Bratman, Roderick Chisholm, Robert Kane, Peter Strawson, and Susan Wolf. The anthology serves as an up-to-date resource for scholars as well as a useful text for courses in ethics, philosophy of religion, or metaphysics. In addition, paired with Free Will: A Philosophical Study, it would form an excellent upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level course in free will, responsibility, motivation, or action theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813366241
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	12/19/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1400L (what's this?)

About the Author

Laura Waddell Ekstrom is associate professor of philosophy at The College of William and Mary.

Table of Contents

Introduction , The Metaphysical Issues: Free Will and Causal Determinism , The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism , Are We Free to Break the Laws? , A New Compatibilism , Causality and Determination , The Analysis of Freedom: Compatibilist and Libertarian Accounts , Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person , Free Agency , Identification, Decision, and Treating as a Reason , Human Freedom and the Self , Indeterminist Free Action , Responsibility, Luck and Chance: Reflections on Free Will and Indeterminism , Free Will and Moral Responsibility , Freedom and Resentment , The Reason View , Libertarianism and Frankfurt's Attack on the Principle of Alternative Possibilities , Rescuing Frankfurt-Style Cases1

Editorial Reviews

A collection of contemporary classic essays and recent work illuminating the general problem of free will and moral responsibility. Addresses metaphysical issues concerning free will and causal determinism, and presents positive accounts of the nature of free action. Discusses free will and moral responsibility in depth, examining theories of the nature of moral responsibility and the challenge to an alternative possibilities condition posed by Frankfurt-type scenarios. For use in advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in ethics, philosophy of religion, and metaphysics. Ekstrom teaches philosophy at the College of William and Mary. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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