How to Live Well Without Free Will

Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-009-55322-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch

Most people not only believe in free will but assume that if we didn't have it society would fall apart. Gregg Caruso challenges this assumption and argues that belief in free will, rather than being a good thing, actually has a dark side and we would be better off without it. His book develops an ethically defensible and practically workable account of how we can live well—indeed, live better—without belief in free will. The book discusses the moral psychology of blame and anger, the intricacies of our moral responsibility practices, and how we can preserve love, morality, creativity, friendship, and criminal and social justice without free will. He also develops an account of virtue ethics and argues not only that it is consistent with free will skepticism, but that adopting the skeptical perspective can better help us achieve the virtues most important to human flourishing and wellbeing.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Caruso, Gregg D.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Free will skepticism; 2. The dark side of free will; 3. Moral responsibility; 4. Morality and virtue; 5. Love and friendship; 6. Criminal justice; 7. Social justice; 8. Creativity; Postscript: a future without free will-hope, humanity, and human flourishing; References.

Über Autor(innen)

Caruso, Gregg D.
Gregg D. Caruso is Professor of Ethics and Director of the Patrick J. Waide Center for Applied Ethics at Fairfield University. He is author of Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice (2021) and Just Deserts: Debating Free Will (2021), co-authored with Daniel C. Dennett.