Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will
David Hodgson
Reviews and Awards
"Hodgson is to be commended for making explicit the commitments driving his own theorising about free will. That is a policy we should all adopt more often." --Mind
"Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will offers much to tantalize any serious student of philosophy."--Brian D. Earp, Journal of Consciousness Studies
"It is a wonderful book, and I believe it explains convincingly the essential role of consciousness in the causation of thought and action. While I am also drawn to Hodgson's account of free will, there still seems to me to be a persistent mystery in the pure agency that must be at the heart of any incompatibilist account. But Hodgson has certainly shown how this element can be located in a complex system with other, traditionally causal factors. The book ends with reflections on the Big Picture of our place in the universe that is consonant with his theory of consciousness and free will. I am very happy to find in his writings the clear and convincing expression of an outlook that seems so right."--Thomas Nagel, New York University
"Theorists concerned with the role of consciousness in human judgment and action production or in event-causal libertarianism will no doubt find much of interest in Hodgson's latest book."--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"David Hodgson is a distinguished jurist as well as a philosopher of considerable depth and breadth. In this book he develops an innovative account of plausible reasoning which cannot be wholly accounted for in terms of algorithmic rules and an equally innovative account of consciousness, which he argues can affect reasoning and decision-making in ways that cannot be fully accounted for in terms of laws of nature. These ideas are then employed in the development of an original account of free will of an indeterministic event-causal kind; and they are applied perceptively to a wide range of other important philosophical topics, including rationality, responsibility, value, morality, law and criminal punishment. The book is written with admirable clarity and is informed by knowledge of quantum physics and contemporary neuroscience as well as of philosophy. It should be read by anyone interested in current debates about free will." --Robert Kane, University of Texas at Austin
"... a thoughtful and lucidly composed set of reflections on consciousness, free will, and the retributive justification of punishment, which together form a coherent and in certain respects original position of philosophical importance." --Derk Pereboom, Cornell University
