Required textbooks:

You will have to have paper copies of these books, which you will need to bring to class. The bookstore has notified me that you will have to request them to special order the physical copies of the books.

• Gary Watson, ed., Free Will, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, paperback, ISBN 978-0-19-925494-1). [second edition only]
• Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good (Routledge, paperback, ISBN 978-0415253994) [in print since about 1970; any edition/imprint is fine].
• Daniel Dennett, Freedom Evolves (Penguin, paperback, ISBN 0-14-200384-0).
• Nancy Cartwright, The Dappled World (Cambridge UP, paperback, ISBN 0-521-64411-9).

Optional textbooks:

• Thomas Pink, Free Will: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2004); I'll use this in the opening session.
• Jenann Ismael, How Physics Makes Us Free (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Reading Assignments:

1. Aug. 27: Introduction.

   Optional summer prereading: Thomas Pink, Free Will: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2004; for an overview of the problem space). Optional reading really is optional -- it's there in case you have an interest in following up on a topic or, in this case, in getting oriented ahead of time.

2. Sept. 3: Setting an Agenda.
   • Peter van Inwagen, Essay on Free Will, excerpt from p. 56 (the "Consequence Argument")
   • Bas van Fraassen, The Empirical Stance, pp. 4-10, 18-25.
     Optional followon reading, for the very ambitious: Brian Cantwell Smith, On the Origin of Objects (MIT Press, 1996).
   • David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, sec. 8 ("Of Liberty and Necessity"; if you have the Selby-Bigge 3rd ed., this is pp. 80-103)
   • William James, Pragmatism, final section of Lecture III (if you have the Hackett edition, this starts on p. 54). Optional accompanying material: https://xkcd.com/325/
   • "Determinism": ch. 4 in D. Pears, ed., Freedom and the Will (this is a transcript of a conversation on the BBC, with G. J. Warnock, P. F. Strawson, and J. F. Thomson as participants; pay special attention to the exchange from p. 62 on)

   Optional reading: Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, I.iii.1-2 ("Of Liberty and Necessity," "The Same Subject Continu'd"; if you have the Norton and Norton edition, this is on pp. 257-65); James, "The Will to Believe" (available shortly).

3. Sept. 10: Second Thoughts about Time and Space.
   • Peter van Inwagen, "An Argument for Incompatibilism" (ch. 2 in Watson, ed., Free Will); in T. M. Scanlon's "The Significance of Choice," footnote 2 (this is on p. 354 of the Watson volume).
     Optional accompanying material: van Inwagen, "When Is the Will Free?", pp. 415-17 (if you want to follow up on the idea that cases in which there's a clearly right choice are rare).
   • Review Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, I.iii.1-2 ("Of Liberty and Necessity," "The Same Subject Continu'd"); William James, Pragmatism, final section of Lecture III; "Determinism": ch. 4 in D. Pears, ed., Freedom and the Will.
   • Jenann Ismael, "Rethinking Time and Determinism: What Happens to Determinism When You Take Relativity Seriously".

     Optional background/followon reading: A. P. French, Special Relativity, Robert Geroch, General Relativity from A to B, and for your amusement, https://xkcd.com/265/.

   Optional followon reading: Ismael, "Free Will in the Physical World" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department); Jenann Ismael, How Physics Makes Us Free (Oxford University Press, 2016).

4. Sept. 17: Can We Make Sense of Libertarianism?
   • David Wiggins, "Towards a Reasonable Libertarianism" (ch. 5 in Watson).

     Optional reading: Wiggins, "A Sensible Subjectivism?" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department). Further followon reading (if you're wondering how to have second thoughts about supervenience): Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

   • Robert Kane, "Responsibility, Luck, and Chance" (ch. 15 in Watson).

     Optional reading: Dennett, Freedom Evolves, ch. 4.

   • Roderick Chisholm, "Human Freedom and the Self" (ch. 1 in Watson).

   Optional followon reading, for the very ambitious: Mark Wilson, Wandering Significance.

5. Sept. 24: Freedom of the Will as Personality Integration. (tentative)
   • Harry Frankfurt, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility" (ch. 8 in Watson); Dennett, Freedom Evolves, pp. 281-87.

     Optional reading: John McDowell, "Virtue and Reason" ( JSTOR) -- para. bridging pp. 334f, starting "One way to bring out the special nature..." --And in case you want a reality check on Frankfurt's characterization of addiction: Owen Flanagan, What Is It Like to Be an Addict?

   • Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, Essay II, secs. 1-2; Twilight of the Idols 6:7 ("The error of free will"), 8:6 (para. starting "I put forward at once...") -- both available shortly.

     Harry Frankfurt, "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person" (ch. 16 in Watson); in Fischer, "Frankfurt-Style Compatibilism" (ch. 10 in Watson), sec. 3 ("The Challenge"), plus para. on p. 207 starting "I grant that those..."

     Optional reading: Watson, "Free Agency" (ch. 17 in Watson).

   • Harry Frankfurt, "The Faintest Passion" ( JSTOR).

     Optional reading: Dennett, Freedom Evolves, ch. 7.

   Optional followon reading: Keith Lehrer, Ultimate Freedom.

6. Oct. 1: What Are Laws of Nature? (tentative)
   • Nancy Cartwright, The Dappled World, Part I (= chs. 1-3).

     Optional reading: Ian Hacking, The Social Construction of What?

   • Student session, papers TBA.

     Optional reading: TBA.

   • Ismael, "Causation, Free Will, and Naturalism"

     Optional reading: David Lewis, "Are We Free to Break the Laws?" (ch. 6 in Watson).

   Optional followon reading: TBA.