Free Will Delusion

B. Miles James

Description

Poverty is not accident, but design. We are not all equal before the law. And the central message of contemporary ethics is that only some people matter. Expanding on work described as "crucial" and "very fine and provocative" by the Editor ofThe Oxford Handbook of Free Will, author James Miles now shows not only that free will is a delusion but that it is this delusion that has left us with only the illusion of morality. Belief in free will means never having to acknowledge your own great good fortune, or recognise the far greater misfortune of others. It is the conceit of freedom of the will that today ensures that so many at the bottom are denied any chance of social and economic advancement.Some free will theorists even argue that we need not be concerned with ideals of equality, fair play and opportunity. Is this fair? "Is it fair...? Life isn't fair", shrugs the free will philosopher Dan Dennett. Yes, life is not fair, and if we leave it up to the priests and the philosophers, it never will be.The Free Will Delusionis an eloquent and rousing call to arms that we can be, we must be, better than this.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy of mind

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 02 octobre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781784628321
• Langue: English

Extrait

PRAISE FOR THE FREE WILL DELUSION
The Free Will Delusion is a remarkable book that covers an enormous range of positions, ideas, and writers on free will and moral responsibility, which is already impressive. But to take this often esoteric material and form it into a book that is powerful, provocative, clear, accessible, and a joy to read: that is a singular achievement
- Bruce Waller, philosopher, and author of Freedom Without Responsibility and Against Moral Responsibility
a terrific book. bold and provocative, yet rigorously argued. ... Miles maintains a hard incompatibilist and anti-utilitarian position against the most prominent defenders of a belief in free will strong enough to support moral responsibility, including Kane, Searle, Dennett, Watson, Fischer, Frankfurt, P. F. Strawson, and the free will illusionist Saul Smilansky. Miles uses the premise of the unfairness of holding persons morally responsible for either determined or non-determined actions to show the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of free will theory. The Free Will Delusion is passionate, compassionate, and an exciting read. Highly recommended
- Richard Double, philosopher, and author of The Non-reality of Free Will and Metaphilosophy and Free Will
PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR S EARLIER WRITING ON FREE WILL
I greatly enjoyed it and hope it prompts a good response from friends and foes alike. It s a funny one, of course, since it seems so counter-intuitive to disbelieve in free will
- Richard Holloway, former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and retired Professor of Divinity, Gresham College
very fine and provocative. Miles s account of the downsides of belief in free will in terms of deserved inequalities , decreasing concern for unequal wealth distribution and harsher views towards the poor and minorities as responsible for their own condition, is an important challenge to believers in free will like myself and a crucial issue at present for the human future generally. Important I believe for raising the issues so strikingly
- Robert Kane, Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Editor, The Oxford Handbook of Free Will
an impressive, powerful, thoroughly informed and eloquent challenge to the entrenched conviction that we have free will
- Derk Pereboom, Professor, The Sage School of Philosophy, and author of Living Without Free Will
... which I was impressed by and much enjoyed
- Derek Parfit, Emeritus Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Global Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, NYU; Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University
in general I find Miles s reasoning superb
- Emeritus Professor George C. Williams, author of Adaptation and Natural Selection and father of selfish gene theory
has greater chance of changing people s views on free will than anything else available. Incredibly important
- Will Provine, Tisch Distinguished University Professor, Cornell University
It doesn t get more trenchant than this! very well taken indeed music to my ears
- Tom Clark, Director, Center for Naturalism
a polemical piece (remarkably so, for an academic journal) but it s hard to deny that he has a point: there s a dark side to the belief in free will
- Neuroskeptic
a violent dissenter from the orthodox point of view
- BioEdge.org
came at the topic in a way that before now I had not considered
- Stephen Platten, the Bishop of Wakefield
I agree with Miles s analysis that a world in which human beings lacked free will would require a radically different conception of criminal responsibility
- Eric Metcalfe, Director of Human Rights Policy, JUSTICE
I love it
- David Levitsky, Weiss Presidential Fellow and Professor of Psychology, Cornell University
fascinating
- Brian Martin, Professor of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong
Few manuscripts have made me smile as much as reading this one. This is impassioned, exuberant, high-octane and quite funny writing that goes after its subject matter in a relentless fashion
- anonymous peer review for the British Journal of Social Psychology
J AMES B. M ILES
T HE F REE W ILL D ELUSION
HOW WE SETTLED FOR THE ILLUSION OF MORALITY
Copyright 2015 James B. Miles
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Libertarianism - Free Will As Error
Biology, Environment, and the Third Factor. Justifications for Belief in Free Choice.
3. Compatibilism - Free Will As Misdirection
Dennett s Law, or the Unluckiest 20% Do Not Matter. Gary Watson, Moral Apartheid, and the Two Types of Human. Compatibilism as Self-Creation. Compatibilism as a Moral and Intellectual Failure. Justifications for a Necessary Belief in Free Will.
4. Illusionism, Semi-compatibilism, Attitudinism - Free Will As Indifference
Interlude - Lesser Libertarianism and Lesser Compatibilism. Illusionism. Reactive-attitudinism. Semi-compatibilism. Hard Compatibilism. Broken Ankles or Stacked Decks?
5. Poverty Is Not Accident But Design
Belief in Free Will Decreases Empathy and Increases Suffering. Contemporary Ethics Says That Only Some People Matter.
6. The Politics - and Economics - of Free Will
Free Will and the Politics of the Right. Free Will and the Politics of the Liberal Left. Free Will, Cultural Difference, and the American Dream. Science on Philosophy; or a Sort of Intellectual Elder Brother . Flattering the Human Animal.
7. The Metaphysics of Free Will
The Doctrine of Free Will is Not Foundational to Judaeo-Christianity. Extreme Calvinism Offers No Lifeline. Attributing Cruelty and Injustice to God . Irreligion and Religion as Equally Morally Flawed.
8. We Are Not All Equal Before the Law
An Examination of the Legal Compatibilist Position. What Would Be a Morally Robust Legal System?
9. Summary - Belief in Free Will Means Never Having to Say Thank You
Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In March 2009 a British publishing house known for specialising in controversial non-fiction offered to publish the earliest draft of this manuscript, but subsequently withdrew that offer on concerns over the difficulty of marketing such a complex message ( highly sophisticated subject matter too complicated in the current climate ). A complex message, and for many a deeply unwelcome one. In hindsight, though, this was an important move, as that version was long on outrage and polemic but rather short on fully formed logical analysis. So began the first of many rewrites. Over the period late 2009 to early 2011 an updated version was being used at Cornell University as a text for students on the course LAW 7652, Human Free Will and Criminal Law , and I would like to thank the course organiser, my friend Will Provine. I would also like to thank the other Cornell academics - philosophers, natural scientists and social scientists - who have, since 2009, provided me with kind words and feedback on my writing, particularly Derk Pereboom, Yervant Terzian and David Levitsky.
Originally called The Free Will Delusion , the working title changed back and forth a few times, particularly after Sam Harris used that title for a 2011 magazine article. The text has changed far more profoundly than the title has, though, and since 2011 my work has acquired a tendency to upset people more thoroughly. In the period 2011 2012 Florida State University funded two separate studies solely to try to undercut my writing on free will. It s worth pointing out that FSU was recipient in 2010 of 4.4 million dollars from the billion-dollar Templeton Foundation; largesse intended to promote a better accommodation between religion and academia over the free will issue. The Foundation s interest in free will, and the effect of the myth on the social order, goes back to well before 2010, and one world-renowned academic sitting on the Foundation s board of trustees has called knowledge of the nonexistence of free will one of the world s most dangerous ideas .
I would like to thank the journal editors who have carried my work or who have asked me to peer review others work on free will, and I would particularly like to thank Philip Laughlin at The MIT Press who in 2013 used me as a consultant on the arguments within the manuscript of one of the world s leading free will philosophers. It was this approach from MIT Press that made me realise that I had moved sufficiently far from pure polemic such that I might once again think of getting a full manuscript published. There are a number of other academics I must single out for their kindness or words of encouragement, including the philosophers Robert Kane, Richard Double and Derek Parfit, but also the celebrated American biologist the late G. C. Williams. George Williams s technical assistance to me on free will was necessarily somewhat less than his incredible assistance during my earlier years writing on selfish gene ( genic selection ) theory, the theory he is credited with developing in 1966, ten years before Richard Dawkins popularised his work. However, wi