This provocative book refurbishes the traditional account of freedom of will as reasons-guided "agent" causation, situating its account within a general metaphysics. O'Connor's discussion of the general concept of causation and of ontological reductionism v. emergence will specially interest metaphysicians and philosophers of mind.
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"The book is intelligent throughout. O'Connor is unafraid to defend an unfashionable view, and to do so in a bold and imaginative way."--John Martin Fischer, MIND
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Timothy O'Connor is at Indiana University.
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Agent Causation Redux,
By Arthur C. W. Bethel (Callifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: Persons and Causes: The Metaphysics of Free Will (Hardcover)
Timothy O'Connor explores (as many have not) the metaphysical underpinnings of agent-causation, the common-sensical idea that our actions are caused by ourselves, rather than by events. He sees that agent-causation requires an analysis of event-causation in terms of the powers of things as released or inhibited by circumstances, and of agents as beings that cannot be explained by physical science. He thinks that agents may be emergent beings whose existence depends on neural structures, but these agents have got to be more than epiphenomenally supervenient states; they have got to be a new kind of being, with causal powers of its own that physical science cannot fully explain. O'Connor is aware of modern-day alternatives to agent-causation, such as indeterminism and under-determinism. (Laura Ekstrom's recent _Free Will_ makes a good companion volume here.) He meets the common criticisms that agent causation results in an endless regress of acts of will, which he thinks rests on a misunderstanding of what agent causation is. O'Connor's style is clear and concise, and the book has the great virtue of being both thorough and short.
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A moment before I began typing these words, I paused to consider how I should spend this afternoon. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
closure under conjunction introduction, simple indeterminist, irreducible causal relation, simple indeterminism, causal indeterminist, indeterminist account, indeterministic account, agent causation, causal potentialities, contrastive fact, indeterminist view, contributing causally, contrastive explanation, causal indeterminism, event causation, rational decision procedure, agency theorist, sufficient causal condition, causal production, agent causality, causal capacity, agency theory, causal determinism, causal activity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Oxford University Press, Constitution Thesis, Cambridge University Press, Carl Ginet, Richard Taylor, Robert Kane, Causal Unity Thesis, Journal of Philosophy, David Armstrong, William Rowe, Clarendon Press, John Fischer, John Searle, Philosophical Topics, Snow Lion New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
A moment before I began typing these words, I paused to consider how I should spend this afternoon. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
closure under conjunction introduction, simple indeterminist, irreducible causal relation, simple indeterminism, causal indeterminist, indeterminist account, indeterministic account, agent causation, causal potentialities, contrastive fact, indeterminist view, contributing causally, contrastive explanation, causal indeterminism, event causation, rational decision procedure, agency theorist, sufficient causal condition, causal production, agent causality, causal capacity, agency theory, causal determinism, causal activity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Oxford University Press, Constitution Thesis, Cambridge University Press, Carl Ginet, Richard Taylor, Robert Kane, Causal Unity Thesis, Journal of Philosophy, David Armstrong, William Rowe, Clarendon Press, John Fischer, John Searle, Philosophical Topics, Snow Lion 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 63
books:
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- Person and Object: A Metaphysical Study (Muirhead Library of Philosophy) by Roderick M. Chisholm on 9 pages
- Free Will (Blackwell Readings in Philosophy) by Robert Kane on 8 pages
- An Essay on Free Will by Peter van Inwagen on 4 pages
- The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control (Aristotelian Society Monographs) by John Martin Fischer on 4 pages
- On Action (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy) by Carl Ginet on page 23, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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