Description
Book SynopsisThe question of free will has preoccupied philosophers for millennia. In recent years the debate has been reinvigorated by the findings of neuroscience and, for some, the notion that we have free will has finally been laid to rest. Not so, says Raymond Tallis. In his quest to reconcile our practical belief in our own agency with our theoretical doubts, Tallis advances powerful arguments for the reality of freedom.
Tallis challenges the idea that we are imprisoned by laws of nature that wire us into a causally closed world. He shows that our capacity to discover and exploit these laws is central to understanding the nature of voluntary action and to reconciling free will with our status as material beings.
Bringing his familiar verve and insight to this deep and most intriguing philosophical question, one that impacts most directly on our lives and touches on nearly every other philosophical problem – of consciousness, of time, of the nature of the natural world, and of our unique place in the cosmos – Tallis takes us to the heart of what we are. By understanding our freedom he reveals our extraordinary nature more clearly.
Trade Review... classic Tallis. He deploys his typical analytic dexterity to establishing the reality of free will in opposition to all advocates for materialist reductionism — but it is 'an impossible reality'. By this he means that natural science, and the simplified metaphysics we take from it, are incomplete accounts of the world and, importantly, of human life, and 'to assert the undeniable reality of human agency is not, however, to deny its mystery' ... lucidly accessible to the non-specialist, but with a series of appendices provided for those disposed to delve deeper. -- John Saxbee, Church Times
The very title of Raymond Tallis’ new book tells us where he stands. Freedom is an ‘impossible reality’ – impossible according to theory, and yet affirmed by our every action. For Tallis, the experience of freedom is non-negotiable: we cannot but experience ourselves as choosing and deciding, intervening in the world in ways that make a difference to it. Beginning from the reality of this experience, Tallis argues that where our theories appear to contradict free will, it is a sign we have misinterpreted those theories. Scientific theories, far from providing arguments against free will, are powerful evidence for its existence ... Tallis does not suffer from the inhibition of academic philosophers, or share the restraint of their conclusions. This makes for an unusually invigorating treatise, especially in the critical sections. -- The New Humanist
Table of ContentsOverture: intention and intentionality1. The impossibility of free will 2. Bringing the laws on side3. Unpicking causation4. Actions5. The human agent6. The limits of freedomCodaAppendices
