Advice on free will philosphers

edmund roberts June 16, 2018 at 15:11 2375 views 4 comments

Hello,

I haven't studied philosophy for a while and when I did I never looked much at discussions on free will and choice. I'm currently writing an essay about choice in video games and I would like to start it off by giving some philosophical context to why we care about our ability(free or otherwise) to make choices. Does anyone have any advice on what I should start reading? Ideally text that is easy to understand and gives a broad picture of what the free will debate is about.

Thanks!

Comments (4)

A Christian Philosophy June 16, 2018 at 17:47 #188511 0 likes

Reply to edmund roberts Hello.

Texts? No idea. But here is what I know. Will is equivalent to intentions. And intention is essential to morality. If there is no freedom of intentions, then there is no morality, that is, no right or wrong way to behave. Also, if there is no free will, then there is no true love, because true love is defined as "willing the good" to the object loved.

Thus free will is important.

Heiko June 16, 2018 at 18:15 #188516 0 likes

Free Will is a precondition to recognize human beings as subjects. The phrase "to make a decision" already acknowledges subjectivity. Otherwise it would be a mere reaction on circumstances.
For an in-depth study of this problem I'd suggest Kant's critiques as literature.

SophistiCat June 16, 2018 at 18:23 #188519 0 likes

Reply to edmund roberts For a broad overview you can't go wrong with the SEP:

Free Will

And you can drill down from there. You may also want to read some of the articles listed in the Related Entries section at the bottom.

edmund roberts June 16, 2018 at 19:42 #188531 0 likes

Reply to SophistiCat perfect! thank you!