Merit, Meaning, and Human Bondage: An Essay on Free Will [Hardcover]

Nomy Arpaly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2006

Perhaps everything we think, feel, and do is determined, and humans--like stones or clouds--are slaves to the laws of nature. Would that be a terrible state? Philosophers who take the incompatibilist position think so, arguing that a deterministic world would be one without moral responsibility and perhaps without true love, meaningful art, and real rationality. But compatibilists and semicompatibilists argue that determinism need not worry us. As long as our actions stem, in an appropriate way, from us, or respond in some way to reasons, our actions are meaningful and can be judged on their moral (or other) merit.

In this highly original work, Nomy Arpaly argues that a deterministic world does not preclude moral responsibility, rationality, and love--in short, meaningful lives--but that there would still be something lamentable about a deterministic world. A person may respond well to reasons, and her actions may faithfully reflect her true self or values, but she may still feel that she is not free. Arpaly argues that compatibilists and semicompatibilists are wrong to dismiss this feeling--for which there are no philosophical consolations--as philosophically irrelevant. On the way to this bittersweet conclusion, Arpaly sets forth surprising theories about acting for reasons, the widely accepted idea that "ought implies can," moral blame, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This volume is a very interesting and clearly written contribution to the literature on free will and determinism. -- Choice

From the Inside Flap

"This book is clearly and compellingly written and highly original. Arpaly does a really excellent job of situating herself within the literature on free will and accounts of praise and blame. I also personally like that she does not depend on the dubious idea of 'reactive attitudes' to ground her account. I find her approach refreshingly sensible. This is an excellent book."--Julia Driver, Dartmouth College

"Arpaly's book is fresh, novel, and original, making intriguing and suggestive contributions to our understanding of basic and important issues. Her use of examples from literature and from psychological theorizing about mental illness helps significantly to broaden and deepen the philosophical discussion. She is distinctive for avoiding the abstract and sometimes sterile hypothetical examples of action-theorists in favor of more colorful and realistic examples from a broad variety of contexts. She offers helpful insights about various issues, and an overall picture that is attractive and distinctive."--John Martin Fischer, University of California, Riverside

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (July 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691124337
• ISBN-13: 978-0691124339
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem, January 24, 2011

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Nan Chen "cineaste" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Merit, Meaning, and Human Bondage: An Essay on Free Will (Hardcover)

This is, in my opinion, a classic. It develops basically a compatibalist account which takes moral responsibility and the freedom necessary for it as compatible with the truth of determinism. It takes off on a strawsonian theme that views our moral "reactive" emotions such as resentment and indignation as justified on the particular "quality of will" of those who's action are under moral evaluation and appraisal.

We judge someone's actions as worthy of resentment or indignation whenever they display certain bad qualities of will such as malice or lack of concern, e.g. We praise someone's actions whenever they display good quality of will such as compassion, kindness, concern, e.g. Traditional incompatibalists (those who see free will, and hence, moral responsibility as incompatible with the existence of determinism) have tried to constrain the locus of blame and praise around the existence of alternative possibilities. One is blame worthy of his action e.g. when he truly could have done otherwise but didn't. But Arpaly shows here that there is some room for a kind of robust meaningfulness, and perhaps, a kind of freedom of action without alternative possibilities one has necessary for moral responsibility, something incompatibalists believe we lack if determinism is true. This kind of compatibalist freedom is a kind of reasons responsiveness or a kind of mental content causation. Here, she draws on the work of many philosophers of mind and action such as Davidson and his critics. Specifically, the content which effectively motivates our actions has to be moral reasons or blameworthy or praiseworthy motives. Once we have this, we display enough of a kind of freedom which renders us morally responsible for our actions even if we could not have done otherwise (no genuine alternative possibilities for us). Certain kinds of mental content colors our life with meaning and our actions with the moral relevance necessary for justified judgments of blame even we we could not have done otherwise in the sense the incompatibalist wish to focuses on.

The major highlight of this book for me is the remarkably beautiful way it is written. It is not just written well in the standard way analytic philosophers come to think of well written philosophy: clear, concise, and well organized. It is all that and it has that quality that most "well written" analytic philosophical works lacks: it is entertaining to read. Arpaly's examples are decidedly entertaining; they are drawn from literature, daily life, and other well known places and they have a palpable quality which are strikingly appropriate to each task she sets out to argue. The book is playful yet passionately argued. The account given so far will not convince the hardcore incompabibalists but Arpaly goes on to argue that the kind of freedom the incompatibalist want (real alternative possibilities) is a kind that is essentially incoherent and conflicts with many of our desires for a meaningful life. I highly recommend this book as it is well argued, insightful and very entertaining.