Free will in context: a contemporary philosophical perspective.
Philosophical work on free will is inevitably framed by the problem of free will and determinism. This paper offers an overview of the current state of the philosophical art. Early sections focus on quantum indeterminism, an outline of the most influential logical argument for incompatibilism between free will and determinism, and telling problems that face incompatibilism. A major portion of the paper focuses on the compatiblist alternative, favored by many working philosophers. The conditional account of free will offered by classical compatibilism can be shown to be inadequate. A number of compatibilist options remain open, however, and seem promising for future research. These include "hierarchical" or "mesh" accounts of free will, normative perspectives and an approach to free will in terms of an emphasis on context. Final sections draw out the implications of contemporary compatibilism for the brain and behavioral sciences and for the law.
Grim
Patrick
P
Group for Logic and Formal Semantics, Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. pgrim@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
D001524:Behavioral Medicine; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010684:Philosophy; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D010825:Physics; D014481:United States