Free Will and Human Agency: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments

In  this new kind of entrée to contemporary discussions of free will and  human agency, Garrett Pendergraft collects and illuminates 50 of the  most relevant puzzles, paradoxes, and thought experiments. Assuming no  familiarity with the philosophical literature on free will, each chapter  describes a case, explains the questions that it raises, briefly  summarizes some of the key responses to the case, and provides a list of  suggested readings. Every chapter is accessible, succinct, and  self-contained. The puzzles are divided into five broad categories: the  threat from fatalism, the threat from determinism, practical reason,  social dimensions, and moral luck. Entries cover topics such as the  grandfather paradox, theological fatalism, the consequence argument,  manipulation arguments, luck arguments, weakness of will, action  explanation, addiction, blame and punishment, situationism in moral  psychology, and Huckleberry Finn. Free Will and Human Agency is  an effective and engaging teaching tool as well as a handy resource for  anyone interested in exploring the questions that have made human  agency a topic of perennial philosophical interest.

Key Features:

• Though concise overall, offers broad coverage of the key areas of free will and human agency.
• Describes each imaginative case directly and in a memorable way, making the cases accessible and easy to remember.
• Provides a list of suggested readings for each case.