CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

1.   Introduction

2.   Libertarianism – Free Will As Error

Biology, Environment, and the Third Factor. Justifications for Belief in Free Choice.

3.   Compatibilism – Free Will As Misdirection

Dennett’s Law, or the Unluckiest 20% Do Not Matter. Gary Watson, Moral Apartheid, and the Two Types of Human. Compatibilism as Self-Creation. Compatibilism as a Moral and Intellectual Failure. Justifications for a Necessary Belief in Free Will.

4.   Illusionism, Semi-compatibilism, Attitudinism – Free Will As Indifference

Interlude – Lesser Libertarianism and Lesser Compatibilism. Illusionism. Reactive-attitudinism. Semi-compatibilism. Hard Compatibilism. Broken Ankles or Stacked Decks?

5.   Poverty Is Not Accident But Design

Belief in Free Will Decreases Empathy and Increases Suffering. Contemporary Ethics Says That Only Some People Matter.

6.   The Politics – and Economics – of Free Will

Free Will and the Politics of the Right. Free Will and the Politics of the Liberal Left. Free Will, Cultural Difference, and the American Dream. Science on Philosophy; or “a Sort of Intellectual Elder Brother”. Flattering the Human Animal.

7.   The Metaphysics of Free Will

The Doctrine of Free Will is Not Foundational to Judaeo-Christianity. Extreme Calvinism Offers No Lifeline. “Attributing Cruelty and Injustice to God”. Irreligion and Religion as Equally Morally Flawed.

8.   We Are Not All Equal Before the Law

An Examination of the Legal Compatibilist Position. What Would Be a Morally Robust Legal System?

9.   Summary – Belief in Free Will Means Never Having to Say “Thank You”

Bibliography