Freedom : an impossible reality / Raymond Tallis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tallis, Raymond, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Free will and determinism.

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 264 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Newcastle upon Tyne : Agenda Publishing, 2021.

Summary:

The 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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.

Contents:

Overture: intention and intentitionality

1. The impossibility of free will

2. Bringing the laws on side

3. Unpicking causation

4. Actions

5. The human agent

6. The limits of freedom.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 Jan 2024).

ISBN:

9781788213806

1788213807

9781788213790

1788213793

OCLC:

1264403105