In Living Without Free Will, Derk Pereboom argues that our best scientific theories indeed have the consequence that factors beyond our control produce all of the actions we perform, and that because of this, we are not morally responsible for any of them. He seeks to defend the view that morality, meaning, and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible, and furthermore, that adopting this perspective would provide significant benefit for our lives.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is an impressive book, which can be recommended to all philosophers interested in the problems surrounding freedom and moral responsibility. It covers a lot of ground..." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"This book is well written and as easy to read as the intricacy of its argument permits. It is clear, careful, insightful, and well-informed, a good guide to the philosophical literature on the many issues it discusses. Anyone concerned with those issues will profit greatly from reading it. Journal of Ethics
"This book is well written and as easy to read as the intricacy of its argument permits. It is clear, careful, insightful, and well-informed, a good guide to the philosophical literature on the many issues it discusses. Anyone concerned with those issues will profit greatly from reading it. Journal of Ethics
Book Description
In Living Without Free Will, Derk Pereboom argues that our best scientific theories indeed have the consequence that factors beyond our control produce all of the actions we perform, and that because of this, we are not morally responsible for any of them. He seeks to defend the view that morality, meaning, and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible, and furthermore, that adopting this perspective would provide significant benefit for our lives.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
practical and philosphical approach,
By
This review is from: Living without Free Will (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy) (Paperback)
A good outline of the problem, especially the contradictions inherent in the compatibilist position. What this book does best though is deal with the implications for our grossly outdated approaches to criminal behaviour/responisibility and the implicatons of determinism for our existence in general.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book; Don't buy the Kindle version,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Living without Free Will (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy) (Kindle Edition)
So let me start by saying that this is an absolutely fantastic, brilliant book. Pereboom is one of the best writers on the topic of the problem of free will and moral responsibility, and he makes a compelling case for an initially very counterintuitive position.
My only problem (and the only reason that this isn't a 5 star review) is that I made the mistake of ordering the Kindle version of this book. The digital text looks like it was scanned in with a very low resolution scanner; it is all but unreadable. For over 30 dollars, it is completely unacceptable. Whatever you do, do NOT get the Kindle version of this book. Search for an ebook version elsewhere (if one is available, I don't know), or get yourself the paperback.
2 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
In love with a wrong-headed idea,
By Glenn Coney (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Living without Free Will (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy) (Paperback)
Some people are so stupid that the only possible job for them in life is to be a college professor. Derk Pereboom falls into this category. He fell in love with the idea that there is no such thing as free will, which is, admittedly, a seductive idea -- for a college sophomore. His love of this idea stems from the seemingly irrefutable logical statement that everything has a cause (or more properly, many causes). Therefore, every action by a human agent has causes and no action is free. He doesn't understand the subtle, but supremely important, differences between "caused," "determined," and "inevitable." Just because my actions have causes doesn't mean that can't be free. There are emergent properties of complex systems (consider life, which is made up of things that are not alive) that cannot be reduced to the properties of their component parts.
The idea that humans have no free will, and are therefore not morally responsible for their actions is not just wrong in an intellectual sense -- it is extremely dangerous.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
The claim that moral responsibility for an action requires that the agent could have done otherwise is surely attractive. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hard incompatibilism, hard incompatibilist, moral reason occur, deterministic process that traces, quarantine analogy, robust alternative possibility, actual causal history, ordinary reactive attitudes, microphysical constitution, moral education theory, incompatibilist intuition, deterministic causal process, moral sadness, intransigent response, hard determinism, moral anger, microphysical state, agent causation, libertarian free will, nonreductive materialism, moral resentment, special deterrence, universal determinism, libertarian freedom, hard determinists Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Gary Watson, Richard Double, Galen Strawson, Recent Work, Colonel Mustard, Harvard University Press, Production of Free Action, Professor Plum, Thomas Reid, Timothy O'Connor, Carl Ginet, Cornell University Press, David Hunt, American Philosophical Quarterly, Bruce Waller, Critique of Pure Reason, Determinist Respect Herself, Englewood Cliffs, Ferdinand Schoeman, Randolph Clarke, Revivification of Rehabilitation, Robert Martinson, Ted Honderich, The Ethical Advantages of Hard Determinism New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The claim that moral responsibility for an action requires that the agent could have done otherwise is surely attractive. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hard incompatibilism, hard incompatibilist, moral reason occur, deterministic process that traces, quarantine analogy, robust alternative possibility, actual causal history, ordinary reactive attitudes, microphysical constitution, moral education theory, incompatibilist intuition, deterministic causal process, moral sadness, intransigent response, hard determinism, moral anger, microphysical state, agent causation, libertarian free will, nonreductive materialism, moral resentment, special deterrence, universal determinism, libertarian freedom, hard determinists Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Gary Watson, Richard Double, Galen Strawson, Recent Work, Colonel Mustard, Harvard University Press, Production of Free Action, Professor Plum, Thomas Reid, Timothy O'Connor, Carl Ginet, Cornell University Press, David Hunt, American Philosophical Quarterly, Bruce Waller, Critique of Pure Reason, Determinist Respect Herself, Englewood Cliffs, Ferdinand Schoeman, Randolph Clarke, Revivification of Rehabilitation, Robert Martinson, Ted Honderich, The Ethical Advantages of Hard Determinism New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 44
books:
See all 44 books this book cites
28
books
cite this book:
See all 28 books citing this book
- Free Will (Blackwell Readings in Philosophy) by Robert Kane on 15 pages
- Moral Responsibility by John Martin Fischer on 12 pages
- Free Will (Oxford Readings in Philosophy) by Gary Watson on 7 pages
- Free Will by Craig Watson on 7 pages
- Punishment and Rehabilitation (Philosophy) by Jeffrie G. Murphy on 5 pages
See all 44 books this book cites
- Free Will (Blackwell Readings in Philosophy) by Robert Kane on 5 pages
- Between Chance and Choice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Determinism by Robert Bishop Dr Dr Dr Dr on page 30, and page 337
- Metaphysics (Dimensions of Philosophy) by Peter van Inwagen on page 217, and Back Matter
- Moral Responsibility: The Ways of Scepticism (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory) by Carlos Moya in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- In Praise of Blame by George Sher on page 5, and Back Matter
See all 28 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
