Description
Book SynopsisA Metaphysics for Freedom argues that agency itself-and not merely the special, distinctively human variety of it-is incompatible with determinism. For determinism is threatened just as surely by the existence of powers which can be unproblematically accorded to many sorts of animals, as by the distinctively human powers on which the free will debate has tended to focus. Helen Steward suggests that a tendency to approach the question of free will solely through the issue of moral responsibility has obscured the fact that there is a quite different route to incompatibilism, based on the idea that animal agents above a certain level of complexity possess a range of distinctive ''two-way'' powers, not found in simpler substances. Determinism is not a doctrine of physics, but of metaphysics; and the idea that it is physics which will tell us whether our world is deterministic or not presupposes what must not be taken for granted-that is, that physics settles everything else, and that we ar
Trade ReviewProvocative to compatibilists and incompatibilists alike, Steward's book is a refreshing and important contribution to the ongoing metaphysical discussion of freedom. * The Review of Metaphysics *
I would encourage all fellow libertarians to read this this book and take heart from the range, power and coherence of the arguments presented. Those arguments are excellent ammunition for future debates * Les Reid, Philosophy Now *
Steward introduces a novel position in the freewill debate ... Anyone interested in mind and agency must read this book. * Clayton Littlejohn, TPM *
Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. The Problem ; 2. 'Up to Us-ness', Agency and Determinism ; 3. Action as Settling: Some Objections ; 4. Animal Agency ; 5. The Epistemological Argument ; 6. Indeterminism and Intelligibility ; 7. Responding to the Challenge from Chance: Some Objections ; 8. Agency, Substance Causation, and Top-Down Causation ; Conclusion ; References ; Index
