Description
Book SynopsisIn Animal Choice and Human Freedom: On the Genealogy of Self-Determined Action, Michael Yudanin argues that describing freedom conceptually is impossible without explaining how it can exist in the world. Yudanin develops an account of freedom’s instantiation in biological agents and provides several prerequisites that are necessary for its exercise. He demonstrates that freedom is linked to the form of life and distinguishes between choice in non-verbal animals and human freedom, where the latter is enabled by the development of language and thus possesses a distinct character. Following this descriptive account, Yudanin explores freedom’s evolutionary history, explaining how it developed in the course of the evolution of species.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Introduction: The Question of Freedom
Part I: Freedom and its Forms
Chapter 1: Basic Characterization of Freedom
Chapter 2: Differential Characterization of Freedom
Part II: The Evolution of Freedom
Chapter 3: The Philosophy of Evolution
Chapter 4: Biological Evolution
Chapter 5: Evolution as the Unfolding of Freedom
Conclusion and the Road Ahead
References
Endnotes
