Courses:

Metaphysics: Free Will >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings

Amazon logo When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more.

This section contains the course texts and a list of readings by session.



Texts


Many of the readings are from the four main texts:

Amazon logo Watson, Gary, ed. Free Will. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN: 019925494X.

Amazon logo Fischer, John Martin, and Mark Ravizza, eds. Perspectives on Moral Responsibility. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993. ISBN: 0801481597.

Amazon logo Dennett, Daniel C. Freedom Evolves. New York, NY: Viking, 2003. ISBN: 0670031860.

Amazon logo Wegner, Daniel M. The Illusion of Conscious Will. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 0262232227.

Of these, only the Watson, which is a recent collection of key papers, is really essential to start with. The Fischer and Ravizza provides a number of additional papers that might be interesting; but I wouldn't advise buying it straightaway unless you are very keen. The Dennett and Wegner books raise various issues about the bearing of empirical work; we'll be discussing this towards the end of the course.

In addition, a number of other books are available:

Amazon logo Kane, Rober, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Free Will. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 0195133366.

Amazon logo O'Conner, Timothy W., ed. Agents, Causes and Event: Essays on Indeterminism and Free Will. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN: 0195091574.

Amazon logo O'Conner, Timothy. Persons and Causes: The Metaphysics of Free Will. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0195133080.

Amazon logo Wolf, Susan. Freedom Within Reason. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 0195056167.

Amazon logo Kane, Robert. The Significance of Free Will. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN: 0195105508.

Amazon logo Roessler, Johannes, and Naomi Eilan, eds. Agency and Self-Awareness: Issues In Philosophy and Psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0199245622.



Readings by Session



LEC #TOPICSREADINGS
1Introductory Session
2The Classical Compatibilist AccountNagel, Thomas. "Freedom." In Free Will.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. 1651, chapter XXI.
3Refining the Consequence Argument and "Could have done otherwise"Watson. "Introduction." In Free Will. pp. 1-4.

As much as you feel you can read of:
van Inwagen, Peter. "An Argument for Incompatibilism." In Free Will.

Notes on Modal Logic and Counterfactuals (see lecture notes)
4Denying Closure of UnavoidabilitySlote, Michael. "Selective Necessity and the Free-Will Problem." Journal of Philosophy 79 (1982).
5Lewis on Law BreakingLewis, David. "Are we free to break the laws?" In Free Will.

For background on this have a look at:
———. "Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow." Noûs 13 (1979): 455-76.
6Modal MetaphysicsStalnaker, Robert. "Possible Worlds." Nous 10, no. 1 (March 1976): 65-75.

Additional Reading

Rosen, Gideon. "Modal Fictionalism." Mind, New Series, 99, no. 395 (July 1990): 327-354.
7More Modal MetaphysicsLewis's footnote on impossible worlds:
Lewis, David K. Footnote 3 in Amazon logo On the Plurality of Worlds. New York, NY: B. Blackwell, 1986, p. 7. ISBN: 0631139931.
8Libertarianism IClarke, Randolph. "Toward a Credible Agent-Causal Account of Free Will." Noûs 27, no. 2 (1993): 191-203.
9Libertarianism IIKane, Robert. "Two Kinds of Incompatibilism." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50, no. 2 (1989): 219-254.
10Time TravelAmazon logo Heinlein, Robert. "By His Bootstraps." Astounding Science Fiction (October 1941). Under pseudonym Anson MacDonald. Reprinted in The Menace From Earth. New York, NY: Baen Books, 1999 (1959). ISBN: 0671578022.

Lewis, David. "The Paradoxes of Time Travel." American Philosophical Quarterly 13 (1976): 145-52.
11Frankfurt on Alternate PossibilitiesFrankfurt, Harry. "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility." The Journal of Philosophy 66, no. 23 (December 4, 1969): 829-839.

Locke, John. "Anticipation of Frankfurt" In Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Book II, 1689, chapter XXI, section 10.
12Reactions to Frankfurt
13StrawsonStrawson, Peter. "Freedom and Resentment." In Free Will.
14Reactions to StrawsonWatson, Gary. "Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme." In Perspectives on Moral Responsibility.

Wolf, Susan. "The Importance of Freewill." Mind, New Series, 90 (1981).
15Frankfurt's Higher Order AccountFrankfurt, Harry. "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person." Journal of Philosophy 68 (1971).
16Reactions to FrankfurtWatson, Gary. "Free Action and Free Will." Mind, New Series, 96 (1987).
17Reason Responsiveness; WolfWolf, Susan. "Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility." In Free Will.
18Choosing; Intentions; Weakness of WillHolton, Richard. "Intention and Weakness of Will." Journal of Philosophy 96 (1999): 241-62.
19Choice and Freedom
20Choice and KnowledgeAmazon logo Velleman, David. "Freedom." Chapter 5 in Practical Reflection. New Haven, CT: Princeton University Press, 1989. ISBN: 0691073376.
21Empirical Work: Social Psychology IWegner, Daniel M., and Thalia Wheatley. "Apparent Mental Causation." American Psychologist 54, no. 7 (July 1999): 480-492.

Wegner, Daniel M. The Illusion of Conscious Will. Especially chapters 1-3.
22Empirical Work: Social Psychology IIDancy, Jonathan. "Arguments From Illusion." Philosophical Quarterly 45, no. 181 (October 1995).

Byrne, Alex. "Some Like It HOT: consciousness and higher-order thoughts." Philosophical Studies 86, no. 2 (May 1997): 103-129.
23AddictionYaffe, Gideon. "Recent Work on Addiction and Responsible Agency." Philosophy and Public Affairs 30 (2002).

Robinson, Terry E., and Kent C. Berridge. "Addiction." Annual Review of Psychology 54 (2003): 25-53.

Berridge, Kent C., and Terry E. Robinson. "The Mind of an Addicted Brain." Current Directions in Psychological Science 4/3 (1995).

Watson, Gary. "Excusing Addiction." Law and Philosophy 3, no. 4 (1999): 351-365.

 








© 2010-2021 OpenCollege.com, All Rights Reserved.
Open College is a service mark of AmeriCareers LLC.