Free will and determinism books
Free will and determinism books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
Leviathan
Thomas HobbesChapter 21 defines liberty as the absence of external impediment, an early statement of compatibilism.
Ethics (Penguin Classics)
Benedictus de SpinozaArgues that human beings are part of a necessary natural order and that freedom consists in understanding it.
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Immanuel KantArgues that moral agency requires us to regard ourselves as free, and that freedom is not fully knowable by theory.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David HumeSection VIII, 'Of Liberty and Necessity', argues that liberty and necessity are compatible.
A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities
Pierre Simon marquis de LaplaceIntroduces the image of an intellect that knows all forces and states and so could predict the whole future.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More free will and determinism books
- The Dilemma of Determinism
The Dilemma of DeterminismWilliam James - Freedom and ResentmentFreedom and ResentmentP.F Strawson
- The Impossibility of Moral ResponsibilityThe Impossibility of Moral ResponsibilityGalen Strawson
- An Essay on Free Will
An Essay on Free WillPeter Van Inwagen - Elbow Room
Elbow RoomDaniel C. Dennett - Living Without Free Will (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)
Living Without Free Will (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)Derk Pereboom - Free Will
Free WillSam Harris - The astrology of fate
The astrology of fateLiz Greene1984 - the fear of fredom
the fear of fredomErich Fromm1941 - Conscious
ConsciousAnnaka Harris2019 - The Jesus Incident
The Jesus IncidentFrank Herbert1979 - Time and free will
Time and free willHenri Bergson1889