Free Will
As an advanced introduction to the challenging topic of free will, this book is
designed for upper- level undergraduates interested in a comprehensive first stop
into the field’s issues and debates. It is written by two of the leading participants
in those debates—a compatibilist on the issue of free will and determinism
(Michael McKenna) and an incompatibilist (Derk Pereboom). These two authors
achieve an admirable objectivity and clarity while still illuminating the field’s
complexity and key advances. Each chapter is structured to work as one week’s
primary reading in a course on free will, while more advanced courses can dip
into the annotated further readings, suggested at the end of each chapter. A com-
prehensive bibliography and a detailed author index are included at the back of
the book.
Michael McKenna is the Keith Lehrer Chair and Professor of Philosophy in the
Department of Philosophy and the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at the
University of Arizona. He is the author of Conversation and Responsibility
(2012) and numerous articles on the topics of free will and moral responsibility.
Derk Pereboom is Stanford H. Taylor ’50 Chair and Susan Linn Sage Professor
in the Philosophy Department at Cornell University. He is the author of Living
without Free Will (2001), Consciousness and the Prospects of Physicalism
(2011), Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life (2014), and articles on free will
and moral responsibility, philosophy of mind, and the history of modern
philosophy.