Foundations of Free Will
Published on 29. January 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
198 pages
978-1-59731-099-4 (ISBN)
Description
Is free will a reality, or just a popular belief discredited by science? Whether the will is free or not, it can have uncomfortable consequences in either case; but in this book these alternatives are not regarded as evenly balanced. The author is guided, rather, by a conviction that a denial of free will means as well a denial of the intelligence needed for this purpose. He concludes that the possibility of knowing the will to be free is a genuine one, while knowing that it is not free leads to unwelcome paradoxes: who or what pulls our strings to produce this effect? If we can answer that, what caused our answer? No attempt is here made to minimize the impact of natural causes on us; rather, we are given an idea of the self (following the ancient idea of man as a microcosm) that, since it contains realities not directly subject to nature, implies that the essence of consciousness is in a sense above nature and thus can be taken to be the basis on which the free will can be developed such that it can dominate the realm of nature and fate. In pursuit of his goal, Bolton makes much use of ideas from Plato and the ancient philosophers who followed him, and relates his ideas to Kant as well. And what is that goal? It is an intriguingly original idea of how free will can function harmoniously even with forces having no part in it.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
295 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59731-099-4 (9781597310994)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Robert Bolton was educated in the sciences and developed a strong interest in traditional metaphysics, obtaining from Exeter University the degrees of M.Phil and Ph.D. He is the author of The Order of the Ages: The Hidden Laws of World History, The Logic of Spiritual Values, Self and Spirit, The One and the Many: A Defense of Theistic Religion, Foundations of Free Will, and Person, Soul, and Identity: Philosophy and the Real Self. All these books are written from the point of view of traditional wisdom, and not tradition for its own sake-for in a world where wisdom is disregarded in favor of power, this point of view keeps all of its relevance. Bolton also contributed regularly to the journal Sacred Web, in which unfolded epistolary exchanges with traditionalist author Charles Upton that may be found in the latter's book, Knowings in the Arts of Metaphysics, Cosmology, and the Spiritual Path. Bolton was a member of the Church of England until the 1960s, when, having observed how willingly that Church was accepting the changes demanded by modern secularism, he converted to the Catholic Church, and to the reality of sacred tradition, which gave him the confidence to write the kind of philosophy he believed the modern world sorely needed. Well-known author Stratford Caldecott credits his first steps toward conversion to Catholicism to Robert Bolton.