Chapter 1: The Problem of Free Will: A Brief Introduction and
Outline of Position
Chapter 2: Against Libertarianism
Chapter 3: Against Compatibilism
Chapter 4: Consciousness and Free Will (I): Automaticity and the
Adaptive Unconscious
Chapter 5: Consciousness and Free Will (II): Transparency,
Infallibility, and the Higher-Order Thought Theory
Chapter 6: Consciousness and Free Will (III): Intentional States,
Spontaneity, and Action Initiation
Chapter 7: Consciousness and Free Will (IV): Self-Consciousness and
Our Sense of Agency
Gregg D. Caruso is assistant professor of philosophy and Chair of the Humanities Department at Corning Community College, SUNY.
Free Will and Consciousness is an effort to deal with a series of
complex topics such as social and cognitive psychology,
neuroscience, philosophy and their relationship with consciousness
and free will in a small number of pages. . . . This book is
therefore a good example of interdisciplinary research. ...
Overall, this book is highly recommend for upper undergraduate
courses, graduate students, and researchers. It is tightly
organized. The vast amount of literature reviewed by the author
makes it a good introduction to the metaphysics of free will and
the debate about cognitive illusion of free will. The arguments
featured were both robust and convincing with the author achieving
a successful concatenation of them in order to uphold his
deterministic account.
*Minds & Machines*
In this rather ambitious book, Gregg D. Caruso attempts to make the
case for free will skepticism, arguing that our feeling of freedom
is an illusion. In making his case, Caruso explores some territory
often left unexplored by many philosophers working on free will. .
. . a substantial portion of the book is devoted to examining the
implications of recent work in neuroscience, cognitive psychology,
and social psychology for free will. . . . there is a lot going on
in this book that should be of interest to philosophers,
neuroscientists, and psychologists interested in the free will
debate. . . . Caruso deserves praise for making a comprehensive
case for free will illusionism that engages with both the recent
philosophical and empirical literature on human agency.
*Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews*
This admirable book enriches the philosophical debate about free
will by bringing to bear a probing discussion of consciousness
along with a rigorous survey of relevant work in experimental
psychology and cognitive neuroscience. The result is a compelling
theoretical and empirical defense of determinism, which does
justice as few treatments ever have to the crucial difference
between genuine freedom and the mere subjective appearance of
freedom. Having argued convincingly that our will is not actually
free, Caruso develops a perceptive account of the conscious
phenomenology that gives rise to our persistent impression that we
do act freely. Anybody interested in free will, consciousness, or
human agency will want to read this book.
*David M. Rosenthal, Professor of Philosophy and Linguistics, The
Graduate Center, CUNY*
This is an aggressive, informative defense of hard determinism
using the latest news from cognitive science. It is (almost) fair
to sophisticated versions of compatibilism, and will force
libertarians to face their worst fears about the subconscious
antecedents of behavior. Caruso’s unusual clarity makes this an
excellent book at all levels of undergraduate and graduate study,
and conveys the author’s conviction that his conclusions are
important.
*Michael Levin, The Graduate Center, CUNY*
This is an excellent book: extremely well-researched, combining
first-rate skills in philosophical analysis and a detailed
understanding of the wide-ranging philosophical arguments
concerning free will with a thorough examination of the relevant
psychological literature. . . The book makes an important
contribution to the current lively discussion of free will, and it
is a superb example of the effective integration of empirical
research into the analysis of philosophical issues. I recommend
[it] very strongly. . . This is, overall, a rigorous and remarkably
thorough examination and critique of basic ideas essential to the
libertarian theory of free will. It is a very important
contribution to the literature, and greatly enriches the
philosophical discussion through its extensive yet judicious
examination of the relevant psychological research.
*Bruce Waller, Youngstown State University*
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