Neurophilosophy of Free Will
- Henrik Walter &
- translated by Cynthia Klohr
MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2001. $45 hardcover, pp 391 ISBN 0-262-23214-6 | ISBN: 0-262-23214-6
Walter's ambitious book, translated from German, asks the perennial question "Do we have free will?" The book is a combination of conceptual analysis and scientific survey, with emphasis placed on the brain sciences. Walter's approach differs from other approaches to the question of free will. Some consider the link between free will and moral responsibility to be central, and argue for the presence (or absence) of free will from evidence that we are (or are not) morally responsible. Others think that the answer to the free will question depends upon whether or not our complete physics is deterministic. In contrast, Walter grants that we may well have a deterministic physics, but argues that within this framework, there may still be room to carve a place for free will, both by reformulating our conception of what free will requires, and by careful attention to our brains and how they give rise to intention and action. As he puts it, “the task of the neurophilosopher is to discover which interpretation of free will has the greatest empirical plausibility.” The uniqueness of his approach lies not so much in his naturalism, but in his focus upon the brain, rather than physical law in general, as the key to determining whether or not we are free.
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