Preface
This book, Free Will: A Contemporary Introduction, is intended as an advanced
introduction to the philosophical topic of free will. Our primary aim is to teach,
and to do so at a fairly demanding level. While our target audience will be
advanced undergraduates taking courses at the highest level suitable for under-
graduate work, we also mean for the book to remain accessible to those less famil-
iar with issues in philosophy. To do so, we shall at points take extra care to explain
terms, arguments, and other background assumptions with which more advanced
readers are already familiar. In any event, our goal is to bring readers to a point
where they are able to arrive at, minimally, a graduate level understanding of this
topic. We mean to invite the newcomer to philosophy to come along. But we will
not purchase clarity with simplicity. The philosophical topic of free will is a chal-
lenging topic, and we mean for this book to be a challenging one as well. We want
our readers to learn, and we want them to do so at an advanced level. For these
reasons, we also intend for this book to be of use to graduate students in philo-
sophy and related areas, and professional philosophers not steeped in the free will
literature who are looking for a comprehensive overview of the field. Thus one
will find other subsections or appendices which we will note are more suitable for
a very advanced audience. In essence, we shall present the free will issue in a way
that is as inclusive as possible in the hope that we can serve many audiences. But
the targeted “sweet spot” for this book is the capable, advanced undergraduate
seeking a treatment of the free will topic that, upon completion, would prepare that
student to take with confidence classes on free will at the graduate level.
Because of our efforts to be as inclusive as possible, we invite the reader to
use our book in ways that best suit her. Some readers will be especially aided by
endnotes, appendices, or side bars explaining somewhat technical matters (such
as what a “modal operator” is). Others quite familiar with various advanced phil-
osophical concepts will have no need of such details and should just pass over
them. Yet a different group of readers—for example, those seeking only an
initial, simple introduction to free will—are also advised to pass over some of
these more complex details. If we succeed in doing what we mean to do, this
book should repay upon multiple readings of it.
We will do our best in the pages to follow not to advance our own views but
instead try to be as fair and even- handed as possible, seeking as objective and