Grice and Mawson on freedom

Mawson, of St. Peter's, Oxford.


T.J. Mawson Belief in God, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, Oxford University Press, 2005
T. J. Mawson, Free Will: A Guide for the Perplexed, Continuum, 2011

In everyday life, we often suppose ourselves to be free to choose between several courses of action. But if we examine further, we find that this view seems to rest on metaphysical and meta-ethical presuppositions almost all of which look problematic.

How can we be free if everything is determined by factors beyond our control, stretching back in time to the Big Bang and the laws of nature operating then? The only alternative to determinism is indeterminism, but is not indeterminism just there being a certain amount of randomness in the world? Does not randomness hinder you from being the author of your actions?

This book looks at how much of the structure of our everyday judgments can survive the arguments behind such questions and thoughts. In doing so, it explores the alternative arguments that have been advanced concerning free will and related notions, including an up-to-date overview of the contemporary debates. In essence, the book seeks to understand and answer the age-old question, ‘What is free will and do we have it?’



Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction
What is the problem of free will?

2. Our Experience of Choice
What our everyday experience suggests about the existence and nature of free will

3. Incompatibilism
Some classic and some modern arguments for and against the view that we can’t have free will if we live in a deterministic universe

4. Indeterminism
Whether we have reason to suppose our universe is deterministic; whether we have reason to suppose it is not; or whether we don’t have reason either way

5. Ultimate Authorship
How we might be the ultimate authors of our actions

6. Conclusion
How we are as we supposed ourselves to be

Glossary
Further Reading
Notes

Author(s)
T. J. Mawson, T. J. Mawson is Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Peter's College, Oxford University. He is currently Secretary to the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion and is author of Belief in God: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2005).


Reviews
"An engagingly-written and thought-provoking introduction to the free will problem, full of innovative examples and arguments; and at the same time an original defense of a distinctive libertarian view of free will." -- Robert Kane, University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Professor of Law at The University of Texas at Austin, and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Free Will.




"Stimulating and engaging: Mawson is a genial guide, drawing the reader into an extended conversation on a perennially perplexing problem of philosophy. The standard ground is covered, but with regular original touches – and, if perplexity is not removed altogether by Mawson’s common sense defence of an agent-causalist libertarianism, at least it will be a perplexity better understood." -- John Bishop, Professor of Philosophy, The University of Auckland, New Zealand






T. J. Mawson, ‘The Problem of Evil and Moral Indifference’, Religious Studies, 35 (1999)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Eternal Truths and Cartesian Circularity’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 9 (2001)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Miracles and laws of nature’, Religious Studies, 37 (2001)
T. J. Mawson, ‘God’s Creation of Morality’, Religious Studies, 38 (2002)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Omnipotence and necessary moral perfection are compatible: a reply to Morriston’, Religious Studies, 38 (2002)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Mill’s Proof’, Philosophy, 77 (2002)
T. J. Mawson, ‘How a single personal revelation might not be a source of knowledge’, Religious Studies, 39 (2003)
T. J. Mawson, ‘The Possibility of a Free Will Defence for the Problem of Natural Evil’, Religious Studies, 40 (2004)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Religions, truth, and the pursuit of truth: a reply to Zamulinski’, Religious Studies, 40 (2004)
T. J. Mawson, ‘How can I know I’ve perceived God?’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 57 (2005)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Freedom, human and divine’, Religious Studies, 41 (2005)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Byrne’s’ Religious Pluralism’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 58 (2005)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Morpheus and Berkeley on Reality’, in C. Grau (ed.), Philosophers Explore the Matrix (OUP, 2005)
T. J. Mawson, ‘God’s Body’, The Heythrop Journal, 47 (2006)
T. J. Mawson, ‘Praying for Known Outcomes’, Religious Studies, 43 (2007)
T. J. Mawson, 'Divine Eternity', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 64 (2008)
T. J. Mawson, 'The Rational Inescapability of Value Objectivism', Think, Spring/Summer 2008
T. J. Mawson, 'The Euthyphro Dilemma', Think, (2008)
T. J. Mawson, 'Why is there anything at all?', in Y. Nagasawa and E. Wielenberg (eds), New Waves in Philosophy of Religion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
T. J. Mawson, 'Mill's Argument Against Religious Knowledge', Religious Studies, 45 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, 'Explaining the Fine Tuning of the Universe to Us and the Fine Tuning of Us to the Universe' (Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture, 10th October 2008), Philosophy, forthcoming
T. J. Mawson, 'The Ethics of Believing in God', Think, (2010)
T. J. Mawson, 'Morality and Religion', Philosophy Compass, 6 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, 'Praying to Stop Being an Atheist', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, (2010)
T. J. Mawson, 'Substance Dualism', in James Garvey (ed.), Companion to Philosophy of Mind (Continuum, Forthcoming)
T. J. Mawson, 'Sources of Dissatisfaction with Answers to the Question of the Meaning of Life', European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2 (2010)
T. J. Mawson, 'Theodical Individualism', European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 3 (2011)
Book Reviews
T. J. Mawson, Review of Jamie Mayerfield’s ‘Suffering and Moral Responsibility’ (OUP, 2002), Religious Studies, 39 (2003)
T. J. Mawson, Review of Paul Copan and William Lane Craig’s ‘Creation out of Nothing’ (Baker Academic, 2004), Philosophy, 80 (2005)
T. J. Mawson, Review of Harriet A. Harris and Christopher J. Insole (eds.) ‘Faith and Philosophical Analysis: The Impact of Analytical Philosophy on the Philosophy of Religion’ (Ashgate, 2005), Religious Studies, 42 (2006)
T. J. Mawson, Review of Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, ‘Divine Motivation Theory’ (CUP, 2004), Ars Disputandi, 6 (2006)
T. J. Mawson, Review of W. P. Alston, ‘Beyond “Justification”: Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation’ (Cornell, 2005), Philosophy, 81 (2006)
T. J. Mawson, Review of C. Stephen Layman, 'Letters to Doubting Thomas: A Case for the Existence of God', Ars Disputandi (2007)
T. J. Mawson, Review of J. Cottingham (ed.), ‘The Meaning of Theism’, Faith and Philosophy, 26 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, Review of D. Bartholomew, 'God, Chance and Purpose', Philosophy, 84 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, Review of David O’Connor, 'God, Evil, and Design, An Introduction to the Philosophical Issues', Hume Review, Forthcoming
T. J. Mawson, Review of Yujin Nagasawa, 'God and Phenomenal Consciousness', Faith and Philosophy, 26 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, Review of M. Murray, 'Nature Red in Tooth and Claw', Mind, 118 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, Review of T. O'Connor, 'Theism and Ultimate Explanation', Religious Studies, 45 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, Review of A. Plantinga and M. Tooley, 'Knowledge of God', Analysis Reviews, 69 (2009)
T. J. Mawson, Review of C. Taliaferro and C. Meister (eds.) 'The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology' (CUP, 2010), Religious Studies 47 (2010)
T. J. Mawson, Review of J. Angelo Corlett, 'The Errors of Atheism', Journal of Teological Studies (2011)