xii Preface
dispassionate an assessment of various disputes as we can. Of course, this is an
ideal, one that is probably not really ever fully attainable. Still, we will try. As it
happens, we are philosophical opponents in the free will dispute. One of us,
Michael McKenna, is a compatibilist about the relationship between free will
and determinism. The other, Derk Pereboom, is an incompatibilist about this
relationship. We thus disagree about many different issues, although there are
numerous others where we are united. We hope that our collaborative effort in
these pages will help foster a balanced, clear, and fair assessment of the field.
But we remain aware that we might very well at points fall shy of this. Every
experienced teacher of philosophy, and teachers of many other areas of study as
well, are all too familiar with learning after years of teaching that her efforts to
remain fair and unbiased in teaching her students were not completely success-
ful. She discovers hidden assumptions that blinded her to the force of other posi-
tions and ideas that would best serve her students. No doubt, some will probably
find places where they believe we have fallen prey to this blindness. But impar-
tiality is an ideal toward which we at least mean to aim. In our effort to do so, at
various points, readers will find us noting how and where other philosophers
would disagree with us. And, for the most part, rather than argue with them, we
mark their good reasons for their difference of opinion, note our own, and leave
it as an open question for the reader to settle for herself.
We have no interest in writing a book that offers the final word or the defini-
tive assessment of the range of topics related to free will. We rather mean for it
to be a place to begin, or instead, for those already familiar with the free will
topic, a place to consider one perspective on the lay of the land. We hope this
book inspires the reading of many more books and articles on free will. Its goal
is not to foreclose the need for more inquiry but instead to instigate more
inquiry—and so for readers at various levels of experience and ability.
For instructors interested in using this book in their classes, we have struc-
tured the chapters so that each can handily be treated as the topic of a single
week’s seminar session. More advanced seminars can be supplemented each
week with more advanced readings. Less advanced seminars can be adjusted
likewise. We have included a comprehensive bibliography at the end of the
book. But we shall close each chapter with suggestions for further readings,
offering brief annotated remarks about them. If an instructor is interested, she
can draw from these suggestions to build her syllabus.
Michael McKenna
Derk Pereboom