A Companion to Free Will

Provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge, and accessible accompaniment to various narratives about free will

A Companion to Free Will is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the philosophy of free will, offering an authoritative survey of perennial issues and contemporary debates within the field. Bringing together the work of a diverse team of established and younger scholars, this well-balanced volume offers innovative perspectives and fresh approaches to the classical compatibility problem, moral and legal responsibility, consciousness in free action, action theory, determinism, logical fatalism, impossibilism, and much more.

The Companion’s 30 chapters provide general coverage of the discipline as well as an in-depth exploration of both CAP (Classical Analytic Paradigm) and non-CAP perspectives on the problem of free will and the problem of determinism―raising new questions about what the free will debate is, or should be, about. Throughout the book, coverage of modern exchanges between the world’s leading philosophers is complemented by incisive commentary, novel insights, and selections that examine compatibilist, libertarian, and denialist viewpoints.

• Offers a balanced presentation of conflicting theories and ongoing debates about the nature, existence, and implications of free will
• Explores the role of scientific advances and empirical methods in contributing to discourses on free will and action theory
• Reviews new developments in longstanding arguments between compatibilist and incompatibilist approaches to free will including those that question this way of framing the debate and critique the standard terminology
• Discusses descriptive, revisionary, and pragmatic approaches for defining key concepts and addressing compatibility problems surrounding free will
• Considers various issues of moral responsibility and philosophical approaches to the problem of free will in new ways

Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, A Companion to Free Will is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students of philosophy, professional philosophers and theorists, and interested novices alike.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at Washington State University. He is co-founder of the Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference and has helped organize scores of philosophy conferences and public events. Professor Campbell has edited nine books as well as numerous papers for the Journal of Ethics, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Philosophical Studies. He is the recipient of the Marian E. Smith Faculty Achievement Award and the Honors Thesis Advisor Award.

KRISTIN M. MICKELSON earned her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) in the Lund-Gothenburg Responsibility Project. She is now an independent researcher who works on the metaphysics of free will (broadly construed), the logic of explanation, and moral luck. Her published work appears in venues such as Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Philosophia, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and Social Philosophy & Policy.

V. ALAN WHITE is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He is the author of numerous articles appearing in Analysis, Erkenntnis, Philosophy, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Process Studies, and Teaching Philosophy. Professor White has written and performed dozens of philosophical parodies on his popular website Philosophy Songs for many years. He is the recipient of a Carnegie/CASE teaching award as Wisconsin Professor of the Year and the 2009 University of Wisconsin Colleges Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.