
Understanding the Free-Will Controversy
Thinking Through a Philosophical Quagmire
Thomas Talbott(Author)
Wipf & Stock Publishers
Published on 16. August 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
140 pages
978-1-7252-6836-4 (ISBN)
Description
What is free will and do humans possess it? While these questions appear simple they have tied some of our greatest minds in knots over the millennia. This little book seeks to clarify for an audience of educated non-specialists some of the issues that often arise in philosophical disputes over the existence and the nature of human free will. Beyond that, it proposes a particular solution to the puzzles.
Many philosophers have argued that free will is incompatible with determinism, and many have also argued that it is incompatible with indeterminism. So, is free will simply an incoherent concept? Talbott argues that the best way out of this quagmire requires that we come to appreciate why certain conditions essential to our emergence as free moral agents--conditions such as indeterminism, ignorance, and a context of ambiguity and misperception--are themselves obstacles to a fully realized freedom. For a fully realized freedom requires that, as minimally rational individuals, we have learned some important lessons for ourselves; and once these lessons have been learned, some of our freest choices may be such that we could not have chosen otherwise because so choosing would then seem to us utterly unthinkable and irrational.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Eugene
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
Weight
159 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-7252-6836-4 (9781725268364)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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E-Book
08/2022
Wipf and Stock Publishers
€18.49
Available for download
Person
Thomas Talbott is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in defense of Christian universalism.