Freedom and Belief
Freedom and Belief by Galen Strawson is a revised and updated edition published by Oxford University Press in 2010, comprising 324 pages. In this work, Strawson presents a critical examination of the concepts of free will and moral responsibility, arguing that there is a fundamental sense in which these notions do not exist as commonly understood. He explores the cognitive phenomenology of freedom, delving into why people maintain a strong belief in their own free will despite the challenges to this belief.
Readers will find a thorough analysis of the implications of freedom and the nature of moral responsibility within the philosophical discourse. Strawson addresses various aspects of our commitment to the belief in freedom, including the cognitive processes that underpin this belief. He raises significant questions about the relationship between the perception of being a free agent and the actual possibility of freedom, making this edition a thought-provoking contribution to the fields of philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics.
Official synopsis Publisher
This is a revised and updated edition of Galen Strawson’s groundbreaking first book, where he argues that there is a fundamental sense in which there is no such thing as free will or true moral responsibility (as this is ordinarily understood). This conclusion is very hard to accept. On the whole we continue to believe firmly both that we have free will and that we are truly morally responsible for what we do. Strawson devotes much of the book to an attempt to explain why this is so. He examines various aspects of the ‘cognitive phenomenology’ of freedom – the nature, causes, and consequences of our deep commitment to belief in freedom. In particular, he considers at length a number of problems that are raised by the suggestion that, if freedom were possible, believing oneself to be a free agent would be a necessary condition of being a free agent.
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