false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814134m/2078.jpg 2078 4 Anyone who has wondered if free will is just an illusion or has asked 'could I have chosen otherwise?' after performing some rash deed will find this book an absorbing discussion of an endlessly fascinating subject. Daniel Dennett, whose previous books include <I>Brainstorms </i>and (with Douglas Hofstadter) <I>The Mind's I, </i>tackles the free will problem in a highly original and witty manner, drawing on the theories and concepts of several fields usually ignored by philosophers; not just physics and evolutionary biology, but engineering, automata theory, and artificial intelligence.<br /> <br /> In <I>Elbow Room, </i>Dennett shows how the classical formulations of the problem in philosophy depend on misuses of imagination, and he disentangles the philosophical problems of real interest from the "family of anxieties' they get enmeshed in - imaginary agents, bogeymen, and dire prospects that seem to threaten our freedom. Putting sociobiology in its rightful place, he concludes that we can have free will and science too.<br /> <br /> <I>Elbow Room </i>begins by showing how we can be "moved by reasons" without being exempt from physical causation. It goes on to analyze concepts of control and self-control-concepts often skimped by philosophers but which are central to the questions of free will and determinism. A chapter on "self-made selves" discusses the idea of self or agent to see how it can be kept from disappearing under the onslaught of science. Dennett then sees what can be made of the notion of acting under the idea of freedomdoes the elbow room we think we have really exist? What is an opportunity, and how can anything in our futures be "up to us"? He investigates the meaning of "can" and "could have done otherwise," and asks why we want free will in the first place.<br /> <br /> We are wise, Dennett notes, to want free will, but that in itself raises a host of questions about responsibility. In a final chapter, he takes up the problem of how anyone can ever be guilty, and what the rationale is for holding people responsible and even, on occasion, punishing them.<br /> <br /> Daniel C. Dennett is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. <I>Elbow Room </i>is an expanded version of the John Locke Lectures which he gave at Oxford University in 1983.<br /> <br /> A Bradford Book. 1839 21 11 1984 Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting total:66|5:14|4:19|3:24|2:7|1:2| 66 234 115 8 3 1 false false Sat Jun 07 21:08:40 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 21:12:11 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1996 Wed Oct 17 12:51:01 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 18 12:14:18 -0700 2007
Whatever the title, this book doesn't describe any credable model of freedom.]]> 0 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1989 Thu Jan 03 17:51:41 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 17:53:57 -0800 2008 2 0 false false Fri Nov 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 12 17:07:23 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 18 10:46:57 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jun 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 13 10:46:16 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 12:19:39 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jul 23 08:16:09 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 08:16:25 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Fri Apr 24 18:57:21 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 18:58:14 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jul 26 21:58:47 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 22:00:29 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Nov 24 20:37:10 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 24 20:37:10 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 21 23:02:02 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:02:02 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Nov 05 20:41:38 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 05 20:41:38 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 07:50:13 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 07:50:13 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 30 14:31:54 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 14:31:54 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 30 10:34:52 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 10:34:52 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Oct 06 08:47:25 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 18:34:22 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Oct 04 19:58:26 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 19:58:26 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Sep 29 21:39:11 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 21:53:54 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 23 09:32:48 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 09:32:48 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Sep 06 06:09:54 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 06:09:54 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Sep 04 09:18:14 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 09:18:15 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2078