Why Free Will Is Real

The ability to freely choose between different options for action is part of our understanding of ourselves as agents. Yet, there is ongoing debate as to whether we are in fact free to choose, and about what exactly free will consists in. In his engaging yet rigorous new book, Christian List takes on the challenge of defending free will. List argues that there are three conditions that need to be met in order for agents to have free will: they need to be able to act intentionally, there need to be genuinely open possibilities for action, and they need to be able to control their actions. According to List, these requirements are threatened by three challenges: the requirement of intentional action is threatened by the challenge of eliminativism, the requirement of genuinely open possibilities is challenged by determinism, and the requirement of control is threatened by the acceptance of physicalism and the causal exclusion argument. He identifies a common thread running through these three challenges, in that all of them create problems for free will by focusing on the level of the physical system rather than the agential level (p.150).

Action (physics) · Argument (complex analysis) · Determinism · Eliminative materialism · Epistemology · Free will · Law and economics · Metaphysics · Physicalism · Sociology · Threatened species · Computer Science · Free Will and Agency · Philosophy · Theology and Philosophy of Evil · War, Ethics, and Justification