A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will

A compact textbook introduction to the free will debate by one of its leading libertarian participants, written for students and general readers. Kane begins with the problem itself: whether freedom and responsibility can survive if every event, including our choices, is determined by prior causes. He covers classical compatibilism in Hobbes and Hume and the incompatibilist reply, including Peter van Inwagen's Consequence Argument. He then sets out libertarian theories: simple indeterminism, agent causation and event-causal views, including his own account of self-forming actions and ultimate responsibility. Further chapters treat hard determinism and newer sceptical views, such as Derk Pereboom's hard incompatibilism and Saul Smilansky's illusionism; Frankfurt-style examples, which challenge the principle that responsibility requires alternative possibilities; and the new compatibilists, including Harry Frankfurt's hierarchical theory, Gary Watson's view and Susan Wolf's reason view, along with P. F. Strawson on reactive attitudes. It closes with predestination and divine foreknowledge, and with free will in modern science, including quantum physics and neuroscience.

It is one of the clearest short maps of the whole free will debate, fair to every side even though its author defends a position of his own.