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This is the web page for 24.211 Metaphysics given by Richard Holton at MIT Fall 2004. This page provides links to papers and other texts that will be useful. It will also provide pdf versions of the handouts and assignments. If you have suggestions for things that might be posted here, please let me know by emailing me at holton@mit.edu
Outline
Course outline and information sheet in pdf
Texts
John Martin Fischer and Mark Ravizza (eds.) Perspectives on Moral Responsibility (Cornell U P 1993)
Daniel Dennett Freedom Evolves (Penguin 2004)
Daniel Wegner, The Illusion of Conscious Will (MIT Press, 2003)
Of these, only the Watson, which is a recent collection of key papers, is really essential to start with. The Fischer and Ravizza provides a number of additional papers that might be interesting; but I wouldn't advise buying it straightaway unless you are very keen. The Dennett and Wegner books raise various issues about the bearing of empirical work; we'll be discussing this towards the end of the course.
In addition I have put a number of other books on reserve:
Robert Kane (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Free Will (OUP 2002)
Timothy O'Connor (ed.), Agents, Causes and Events (OUP 1995)
Timothy O'Connor, Persons and Causes (OUP 2000)
Susan Wolf, Freedom Within Reason (OUP 1990)
Robert Kane, The Significance of Free Will (OUP 1996)
Johannes Roessler and Naomi Eilan (eds.), Agency and Self-Awareness (OUP 2003)
Assignments
Handouts and Readings
Week One
Wednesday September 8: Introductory session
Week Two
Monday September 13: The Classical Compatibilist account [Handout]
- Nagel, 'Freedom' (in Watson)
Hobbes Leviathan Ch. XXI
Wednesday September 15: Refining the Consequence Argument and 'Could have done otherwise' [Handout]
- Watson's introduction to his Freewill pp. 1-4
As much as you feel you can read of van Inwagen, 'An Argument for Incompatibilism' in Watson
Notes on modal logic and counterfactuals
Week Three
Monday September 20: Denying Closure of unavoidability [Handout]
- Michael Slote 'Selective Necessity and the Free-Will Problem' Journal of Philosophy 79 (1982) [JSTOR from outside MIT]
Wednesday September 22: Lewis on law breaking
- David Lewis, 'Are we free to break the laws?' in Watson
For background on this have a look at his 'Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow' Nous 13 (1979) 455-76 [JSTOR from outside MIT]
Week Four
Monday September 27: Modal Metaphysics [Handout]
- Robert Stalnaker 'Possible Worlds' Nous 10, 1976 [JSTOR from outside MIT]
Additional Reading: Gideon Rosen, 'Modal Fictionalism' Mind 1990 JSTOR from outside MIT
Week Five
Monday October 4: Libertarianism I [Handout]
- Randolph Clarke 'Toward a Credible Agent-Causal Account of Free Will' Nous 27 (1993)
- Robert Kane 'Two Kinds of Incompatibilism' Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50 (1989)
Week Six
Monday October 11: Columbus Day Holiday
Wednesday October 13: Time travel
- Robert Heinlein 'By His Bootstraps'
David Lewis 'The Paradoxes of Time Travel' American Philosophical Quarterly, 13 (1976) 145-52.
Week Seven
Monday October 18: Frankfurt on Alternate Possibilities [Handout]
- Harry Frankfurt Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility
Locke's anticipation of Frankfurt occurs in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter XXI, Section 10
Week Eight
Monday October 25 Strawson [Handout]
- 'Freedom and Resentment' reprinted in Watson (ed.) Freewill
-
Gary Watson 'Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme' in Fischer and Ravizza
Susan Wolf, 'The Importance of Freewill' Mind 90 (1981)
Week Nine
Monday November 1: Frankfurt's Higher Order account [Handout]
- Harry Frankfurt Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person Journal of Philosophy 68 (1971)
Wednesday November 3: Reactions to Frankfurt
- Gary Watson 'Free Action and Free Will', Mind 96 (1987)
Week Ten
Monday November 8: Reason Responsiveness; Wolf [Handout]
- Wolf, 'Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility', in Watson
Wednesday November 10:Choosing; intentions; weakness of will
- Richard Holton, "Intention and Weakness of Will"
Week Eleven
Monday November 15: Choice and Freedom [Handout]
- David Velleman, Chapter Five of Practical Rationality
Week Twelve
Monday November 22: Empirical work: Social psychology I [Handout]
- Wegner and Wheatley 'Apparent Mental Causation' American Psychologist 1999
Wegner, The Illusion of Conscious Will esp. Chs 1 - 3
Week Thirteen
Monday November 29: Empirical work: Social Psychology II [Handout]
- Dancy Arguments From Illusion, Philosophical Quarterly 1995
Alex Byrne, "Some Like It HOT: consciousness and higher-order thoughts"
- Gideon Yaffe, Recent Work on Addiction and Responsible Agency Philosophy and Public Affairs 30 (2002)
Robinson, T.E. & Berridge, K.C. Addiction. Annual Review of Psychology, v. 54, pp. 25-53, 2003
Berridge and Robinson 'The Mind of an Addicted Brain' Current Directions in Psychological Science 4/3 (1995) G. Watson, 'Excusing Addiction' Law and Philosophy 1999