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Product Description
Product Description
Every day we seem to make and act upon all kinds of free choices - some of them trivial, and some so consequential that they may change the course of our life, or even the course of history. But are these choices really free? Or are we compelled to act the way we do by factors beyond our control? Is the feeling that we could have made different decisions just an illusion? And if our choices are not free, why should we be held morally responsible for our actions? This Very Short Introduction, written by a leading authority on the subject, looks at a range of issues surrounding this fundamental philosophical question, exploring it from the ideas of the Greek and medieval philosophers through to the thoughts of present-day thinkers. It provides a interesting and incisive introduction to this perennially fascinating subject.
About the Author
Thomas Pink is Lecturer in Philosophy at King's College, London. He works mainly in ethics, philosophy of mind and action, political philosophy, and philosophy of law. He also works on medieval and early modern philosophy. His publications include The Psychology of Freedom (CUP, 1996), and the edited collection (with Martin Stone) Theories of Human Action and the Will (forthcoming). He is also an associate editor of Mind.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read many of the books in the (generally excellent) Very Short Introduction range, and this is the first that has prompted me to write a review of any kind. Unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons...
For an introduction, I think this is more likely to turn people away from what is in my experience a wonderfully thought provoking subject. The author briefly introduces the key concepts, but then blends in their more detailed explanations with his own personal bias and synthesis; this distorts the meaning of terms, and muddies the debate. If you couple this with his tortured style of prose it becomes in some places both boring and unreadable.
I would recommend anyone interested in the subject to try and find a good anthology of classic texts, to better understand the positions of Hobbes, Hume, Kant and others, which are not as intimidating to the intelligent general reader as many would suppose.
For an introduction, I think this is more likely to turn people away from what is in my experience a wonderfully thought provoking subject. The author briefly introduces the key concepts, but then blends in their more detailed explanations with his own personal bias and synthesis; this distorts the meaning of terms, and muddies the debate. If you couple this with his tortured style of prose it becomes in some places both boring and unreadable.
I would recommend anyone interested in the subject to try and find a good anthology of classic texts, to better understand the positions of Hobbes, Hume, Kant and others, which are not as intimidating to the intelligent general reader as many would suppose.
31 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read a large number of the Very Short Introduction series and am on the whole very impressed with them. Reading this particular book, however, I felt I was reading a very bad exam paper. The text is replete with the type of flawed argumentation one would expect from a keen but unpromising high school pupil. It was so bad that I was able to find at least one major flaw per page, often more. Some of the worst flaws include:
* Pink frequently assumes that because something need not be the case that it therefore is not the case.
* Pink fails to present a theory for freedom, relying instead on very poor attempts to undermine the counter-arguments to the case for freedom of the will, arguments he is either willfully distorting or has not understood.
* Pink makes the flawed assumption that theories of causal determinism are necessarily reductive.
* Pink's arguments against determinism, garrulous as they are, are not more sophisticated than 'we have free will because we perceive that we have it'.
* Pink's book is, as another reviewer has highlighted, highly repetitive. In fact, this is an understatement. It could not be more repetitive if it tried. This could easily have fitted onto 30 pages.
* Pink takes certain key terms for granted (e.g. 'we', 'self', 'free agent'), perhaps realising that their definition may undermine his rambling hypotheses.
* At times, Pink seems to assume that prior causation must mean that things are mapped out for the individual since before birth, rather than acknowledging the chaos and flux which is at play in causal relationships. This in itself is an example of the reductionism he readily criticizes elsewhere.
* Pink argues against the Hobbesian view that action is driven by prior desires with the awful counter-example of 'if I am out walking, and decide to take a break on a bench, then decide to get up and continue my walk, that decision is not driven by prior desires'. His notion of temporality is skewed here, for 'man wishes to get up and continue walk, gets up, continues walk' is sufficient to undermine his argument. Immediately prior is still prior.
* In trying to undermine the role of desires in action, he replaces this term with `motivation'. However, he fails to define `motivation' and fails to show how it is any different or any more amenable to freedom than `desire'.
* Et cetera ad nauseum...
All in all, Pink has produced something that is an embarassment to philosophy. He shouldn't be teaching at a university, let alone publishing books. I suggest he goes back to school to learn the very basics of philosophy. Whether you come from the determinist, compatibilist or libertarian camp, this book has only one thing to offer: an example of how not to argue a case for the freedom of the will.
* Pink frequently assumes that because something need not be the case that it therefore is not the case.
* Pink fails to present a theory for freedom, relying instead on very poor attempts to undermine the counter-arguments to the case for freedom of the will, arguments he is either willfully distorting or has not understood.
* Pink makes the flawed assumption that theories of causal determinism are necessarily reductive.
* Pink's arguments against determinism, garrulous as they are, are not more sophisticated than 'we have free will because we perceive that we have it'.
* Pink's book is, as another reviewer has highlighted, highly repetitive. In fact, this is an understatement. It could not be more repetitive if it tried. This could easily have fitted onto 30 pages.
* Pink takes certain key terms for granted (e.g. 'we', 'self', 'free agent'), perhaps realising that their definition may undermine his rambling hypotheses.
* At times, Pink seems to assume that prior causation must mean that things are mapped out for the individual since before birth, rather than acknowledging the chaos and flux which is at play in causal relationships. This in itself is an example of the reductionism he readily criticizes elsewhere.
* Pink argues against the Hobbesian view that action is driven by prior desires with the awful counter-example of 'if I am out walking, and decide to take a break on a bench, then decide to get up and continue my walk, that decision is not driven by prior desires'. His notion of temporality is skewed here, for 'man wishes to get up and continue walk, gets up, continues walk' is sufficient to undermine his argument. Immediately prior is still prior.
* In trying to undermine the role of desires in action, he replaces this term with `motivation'. However, he fails to define `motivation' and fails to show how it is any different or any more amenable to freedom than `desire'.
* Et cetera ad nauseum...
All in all, Pink has produced something that is an embarassment to philosophy. He shouldn't be teaching at a university, let alone publishing books. I suggest he goes back to school to learn the very basics of philosophy. Whether you come from the determinist, compatibilist or libertarian camp, this book has only one thing to offer: an example of how not to argue a case for the freedom of the will.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't bother reading.
Pink approaches the topic of free will with about as much knowledge as anyone picking up this book would have on the subject. Incredibly repetitive and mainly just a game of playing with (ill-defined) semantics to make his own biased point.
If you want to read about any of the real philosophy done on the topic that might actually be of use to you - such as the philosophers Frankfurt, Strawson, Fischer, van Inwagen, Wolf, Dennett etc., or any information regarding quantum physics, evolutionary psychology or neuroscience - there is no point looking here. Pink doesn't get much further than Hobbes and sharks (which he sadly thinks don't make what he calls decisions, whereas we do - thus problem solved)
Kane's book is a much better alternative, as is the SEP.
Pink approaches the topic of free will with about as much knowledge as anyone picking up this book would have on the subject. Incredibly repetitive and mainly just a game of playing with (ill-defined) semantics to make his own biased point.
If you want to read about any of the real philosophy done on the topic that might actually be of use to you - such as the philosophers Frankfurt, Strawson, Fischer, van Inwagen, Wolf, Dennett etc., or any information regarding quantum physics, evolutionary psychology or neuroscience - there is no point looking here. Pink doesn't get much further than Hobbes and sharks (which he sadly thinks don't make what he calls decisions, whereas we do - thus problem solved)
Kane's book is a much better alternative, as is the SEP.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I could not finish this book
Sorry, I will not be so detailed and elaborate as other reviewers before me. English is my second language and even in this case I was shocked how badly written this book was,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Istvan
Not as compelling an introduction as other Philosophy titles in this...
Pink's book does act as an short and compelling introduction... the question is as to what it introduces. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2009 by T. L. Krawec
confused presentation of confused thinking
Unfortunately, I can only agree with previous commentators in that this is a rather poor example of the otherwise usually excellent VSI series. Read more
Published on 25 May 2009 by Sebastian Heid
Muddled and repetitive
Compared to the other Very Short Introductions I have read, this one is a let-down. For one thing, one would have thought that due to shortage of space, unnecessary repetitions... Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2007 by Hobby Philosopher
Crossed Wires
I think this is a good introduction, but not necessarily in the way the author intended it. Thomas Pink suggests there is a 'free will problem' within English language philosophy. Read more
Published on 29 May 2006 by C. H. D. Vermont
A confusing initiation
This book is easy enough to follow (if you read certain paragraphs twice and can keep up with the typically philosophical endless repetition of the same words in one sentence) and... Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2006 by Oliver Lea
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