1st Edition
Free Will and Human Agency: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments
In this new kind of entrée to contemporary discussions of free will and human agency, Garrett Pendergraft collects and illuminates 50 of the most relevant puzzles, paradoxes, and thought experiments. Assuming no familiarity with the philosophical literature on free will, each chapter describes a case, explains the questions that it raises, briefly summarizes some of the key responses to the case, and provides a list of suggested readings. Every chapter is accessible, succinct, and self-contained. The puzzles are divided into five broad categories: the threat from fatalism, the threat from determinism, practical reason, social dimensions, and moral luck. Entries cover topics such as the grandfather paradox, theological fatalism, the consequence argument, manipulation arguments, luck arguments, weakness of will, action explanation, addiction, blame and punishment, situationism in moral psychology, and Huckleberry Finn. Free Will and Human Agency is an effective and engaging teaching tool as well as a handy resource for anyone interested in exploring the questions that have made human agency a topic of perennial philosophical interest.
Key Features:
- Though concise overall, offers broad coverage of the key areas of free will and human agency.
- Describes each imaginative case directly and in a memorable way, making the cases accessible and easy to remember.
- Provides a list of suggested readings for each case.
Preface
Part I: Fatalism and other sources of existential angst
1. The garden of forking paths
2. Tomorrow’s sea battle
3. A date with destiny
4. Stranger than Fiction
5. The trouble with time travel
6. Does deliberation require uncertainty?
7. One box or two?
8. Does divine foreknowledge undermine our freedom?
9. Fatalism in the courtroom
Part II: The threat from determinism(s)
10. The Genesis Tub
11. Swerving atoms
12. Fear of snakes
13. Incompatibilist mountain
14. An impossible feat of engineering
15. Can Elwood buy an Edsel?
16. The nefarious neurosurgeon
17. The avalanche
18. The broken steering wheel
19. Shark-infested waters
20. Professor Plum’s unfortunate upbringing
21. Rolling back and replaying the universe
22. Surveying the folk
23. Metaphysical flip-flopping
24. The fundamental free will puzzle?
Part III: Practical reason
25. Freedom to choose the good
26. Is conscious choice an illusion?
27. The Daily Wavester
28. Reading Emma
29. Competing sets of reasons
30. The captain in the storm
31. One thought too many?
32. The anxious mountaineer
33. Acting against better judgment
34. An impossible intention?
Part IV: Social dimensions
35. A hierarchy of desires
36. The conflict between desires and values
37. Can addiction be excused?
38. Escaping the strains of involvement
39. Hypocritical blame
40. The troubling case of Robert Harris
41. Problems with pre-punishment
42. The unfortunate fawn
43. Do social agents exist?
Part V: Moral luck
44. Is anything really under our control?
45. The unfortunate taxi driver
46. How important is character in explaining behavior?
47. The industrious philosopher(s)
48. JoJo, son of Jo
49. Huck Finn does what he thinks is wrong
50. A herd of wild pigs
Biography
Garrett Pendergraft is Blanche E. Seaver Professor of Philosophy at Pepperdine University. His research focuses on understanding and responding to various threats to free will and moral responsibility.
