Elbow Room by Daniel Dennett
The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting
This book argues that the kinds of free will worth wanting are compatible with a scientifically lawful universe: human beings need not rely on metaphysical indeterminacy or mystical agency to be morally responsible agents. It explains how capacities for reasoning, planning, and avoiding foreseeable outcomes—what the author calls evitability and reasons-responsiveness—ground praise, blame, and personal autonomy, while showing that mere randomness would neither secure nor enhance freedom. Through thought experiments and appeals to cognitive science and philosophy, the work dismantles common intuitions about a mysterious, contra-causal freedom and replaces them with a naturalistic account of human choice and moral responsibility.
- Published
- 1984
- Nationality
- American
- Length
- Short
- Pages
- 160-200
- Original Language
- English
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- Alternate Titles
- None
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