Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T22:48:53.674Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

Preface and acknowledgements

Graham McFee
Affiliation:
University of Brighton
Get access

Summary

While an undergraduate, I became aware of both the interest and the intractability of the problem of free will: a small prize was offered in the philosophy department for any undergraduate who presented a solution to that problem that would satisfy any two members of the department; at least, we undergraduates believed in such a prize. (Two members were required, obviously, to stop the candidates simply replaying his or her own preferred solution back to a particular staff member, as though that might have been convincing even for one!) This prize was not won during my tenure as undergraduate and research student.

Part of the attractiveness of the topic, though, was its ability to grab the attention of beginners – to show them what philosophical issues were and why they were quite generally important. Therefore this was a suitable topic for use (as here) to introduce relative beginners to philosophical issues and methods. Moreover, one's point of final arrival could be a long way into philosophy. Thus here, although issues broached and methods offered derive from Anglo-American analytical philosophy, the conclusions reached, and the conception of the philosophical enterprise subtended, are not: at least, not ones dominant in the current incarnation of that tradition (see Chapter 9).

Such a way of writing, displaying (and commenting on) both arguments and argumentative strategies, could seem like giving students “target practice” on philosophical views.

Type
Chapter
Information
Free Will , pp. vi - viii
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×