Research Catalog

Title

Bound : essays on free will and responsibility / Shaun Nichols.

Author

Nichols, Shaun.

Publication

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press 2015.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 188 pages; 23 cm

Summary

The problem of free will arises from ordinary, commonsense reflection. Shaun Nichols examines these ordinary attitudes from a naturalistic perspective. He offers a psychological account of the origins of the problem of free will. According to his account the problem arises because of two naturally emerging ways of thinking about ourselves and the world, one of which makes determinism plausible while the other makes determinism implausible. Although contemporary cognitive science does not settle whether choices are determined, Nichols argues that our belief in indeterminist choice is grounded in faulty inference and should be regarded as unjustified. However, even if our belief in indeterminist choice is false, it's a further substantive question whether that means that free will doesn't exist. Nichols argues that, because of the flexibility of reference, there is no single answer to whether free will exists. In some contexts, it will be true to say 'free will exists'; in other contexts, it will be false to say that. With this substantive background in place, this book promotes a pragmatic approach to prescriptive issues. In some contexts, the prevailing practical considerations suggest that we should deny the existence of free will and moral responsibility; in other contexts the practical considerations suggest that we should affirm free will and moral responsibility. This allows for the possibility that in some contexts, it is morally apt to exact retributive punishment; in other contexts, it can be apt to take up the exonerating attitude of hard incompatibilism.

Subject

• Free will and determinism
• Duty
• Responsibility
• Vrije wil
• Determinisme

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Agency. The folk psychology of agency ; The indeterminist intuition : source and status ; Free will and error -- Moral responsibility. Incompatibilism : intuitive and isolated ; Debunking arguments ; Brute retributivism ; After incompatibilism.

Call Number

JFD 15-2356

ISBN

• 9780199291847
• 0199291845

OCLC

882899253

Author

Nichols, Shaun.

Title

Bound : essays on free will and responsibility / Shaun Nichols.

Publisher

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press 2015.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Research Call Number

JFD 15-2356