PARADOXES OF FREE WILL

Driving human reason too far in the analysis of deep problems often leads to irresolvable inconsistencies and contradictions. This monograph traces the origins and development of the paradoxes of free will. Free will poses one of the oldest and most vexacious philosophical problems, dating back to the beginnings of moral philosophy in ancient Greece. Pure theoretical reason implies that our actions are determined, while practical theoretical reason tells us that our will is free. Gunther Stent examines the arguments of moral responsibility versus determinism from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to Immanuel Kant, Neils Bohr, and Max Planck.