A Companion to Free Will

Provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge, and accessible accompaniment to various narratives about free will

A Companion to Free Will is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the philosophy of free will, offering an authoritative survey of perennial issues and contemporary debates within the field. Bringing together the work of a diverse team of established and younger scholars, this well-balanced volume offers innovative perspectives and fresh approaches to the classical compatibility problem, moral and legal responsibility, consciousness in free action, action theory, determinism, logical fatalism, impossibilism, and much more.

The Companion’s 30 chapters provide general coverage of the discipline as well as an in-depth exploration of both CAP (Classical Analytic Paradigm) and non-CAP perspectives on the problem of free will and the problem of determinism—raising new questions about what the free will debate is, or should be, about. Throughout the book, coverage of modern exchanges between the world’s leading philosophers is complemented by incisive commentary, novel insights, and selections that examine compatibilist, libertarian, and denialist viewpoints.

• Offers a balanced presentation of conflicting theories and ongoing debates about the nature, existence, and implications of free will
• Explores the role of scientific advances and empirical methods in contributing to discourses on free will and action theory
• Reviews new developments in longstanding arguments between compatibilist and incompatibilist approaches to free will including those that question this way of framing the debate and critique the standard terminology
• Discusses descriptive, revisionary, and pragmatic approaches for defining key concepts and addressing compatibility problems surrounding free will
• Considers various issues of moral responsibility and philosophical approaches to the problem of free will in new ways

Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, A Companion to Free Will is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students of philosophy, professional philosophers and theorists, and interested novices alike.

Joseph Campbell is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at Washington State University. He is co-founder of the Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference and has helped organize scores of philosophy conferences and public events. Professor Campbell has edited nine books as well as numerous papers for the Journal of Ethics, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Philosophical Studies.

Kristin M. Mickelson earned her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) in the Lund-Gothenburg Responsibility Project. She is now an independent researcher who works primarily on the metaphysics of free will (broadly construed to include mental causation, personal identity, laws of nature, etc.) and the logic of explanation. Her publications appear in venues such as Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Philosophia, Philosophical Studies, and Social Philosophy & Policy.

V. Alan White is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin--Green Bay. He is the author of numerous articles appearing in Analysis, Erkenntnis, Philosophy, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Process Studies, and Teaching Philosophy. Professor White has written and performed dozens of philosophical parodies on his popular website Philosophy Songs for many years. He is the recipient of a Carnegie/CASE teaching award as Wisconsin Professor of the Year and the 2009 University of Wisconsin Colleges Chancellor's Award for Excellence.

Contents

List of Contributors x

Acknowledgments xvi

1 Introduction, Wiley Companion to Free Will 1

Kristin M. Mickelson, Joseph Campbell, and V. Alan White

Part I Preliminaries 21

2 Logical and Theological Fatalism 23

Alicia Finch

3 Causal Determinism 39

V. Alan White

4 (In)compatibilism 58

Kristin M. Mickelson

5 Agent Causation 84

Leigh C. Vicens

6 Obligation and Moral Responsibility 95

Ishtiyaque Haji

7 Perfect Freedom 108

Marilyn Mccord Adams

Part II Compatibility Problems 123

8 The Consequence Argument and the Mind Argument 125

Joseph Campbell and Kenji Lota

9 Manipulation and Direct Arguments 144

Justin A. Capes

10 Freedom and Time Travel 157

Ryan Wasserman

11 Divine Freedom 169

Brian Leftow

12 Denialism 184

Saul Smilansky

13 Revisionism 204

Manuel R. Vargas

Part III The Science of Free Will 221

14 How the Laws Constrain: Causation, Counterfactuals, and Free Will 223

Kadri Vihvelin

15 Free Will and Implicit Attitudes 241

Neil Levy and Jessica Wright

16 The Role of Consciousness in Free Action 256

Philip Woodward

17 Neuroscience 278

R.R. Waller

18 A Defense of Natural Compatibilism 294

Florian Cova

19 Libertarianism 314

Mark Balaguer

Part IV Moral Responsibility 335

20 Children and Moral Responsibility 337

Meghan Griffith

21 The Epistemic Condition of Moral Responsibility 355

Philip Robichaud

22 Forgiveness and the Emotions 369

Laura W. Ekstrom

23 Free Will and Moral Luck 378

Robert J. Hartman

24 Basic Desert and the Appropriateness of Blame 393

Kelly Mccormick

25 Criminal Responsibility 406

Ken Levy

Part V The Future 415

26 The Experience of Free Agency 417

Oisín Deery and Eddy Nahmias

27 The Future of the Causal Quest 434

Hannah Tierney

28 Free Will and Reference 451

Shaun Nichols

29 Meaning in Life and Free Will Skepticism 464

Derk Pereboom

30 Free Will: Looking Ahead 477

Alfred R. Mele

31 Epilogue: Free Will Zombies 491

V. Alan White

Index 496

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