Download or read book Free Will and Determinism in American Literature written by Perry D. Westbrook and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-08-27 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The problem of the freedom or the bondage of the will was brought to this country by the Puritans, and it has been one of the unanswerable questions ever since. Whereas many other books have been written on Puritanism and on naturalism in their philosophic and theological manifestations, this book traces these ideas through our national literature. Chapter 1 begins with a brief account of St. Augustine's views concerning the will, continues with a full discussion of John Calvin's modifications of Augustine's views, and ends with a consideration of Puritan concepts of the will as found in the writings of Michael Wigglesworth and Jonathan Edwards. The second chapter looks at the subject of the predestinated will in the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Mary Wilkins Freeman and in the poetry of Emily Dickinson. In the succeeding chapter attention is turned to nineteenth-century authors actively hostile to the Calvinistic concept of predestination: Charles Brockden Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Mark Twain. The next two chapters then trace the rise of naturalistic determinism and compare and contrast it with the Calvinistic doctrines of predestination and election. Focus is later directed on the blossoming of 'literary naturalism in America in the works of Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London, and Theodore Dreiser. The combining of naturalism with vestigial Calvinism in the novels of Ellen Glasgow and William Faulkner is the next subject of extended discussion. In the concluding two chapters attention is turned to libertarian philosophies opposed to predestination and naturalistic determinism, including deism, transcendentalism, pragmatism, and humanism. The influence of the great Russian novelists is presented, and William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Willa Cather are discussed as humanistic writers. Finally, the continuing tension between humanism and scientific determinism is noted in the writings of Ernest Hemingway. The themes of the book are illustrated with many examples from the prose and verse of American writers.
Download or read book Essays on Determinism in American Literature written by Sydney J. Krause and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Naturalism in American Fiction written by John J. Conder and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this closely reasoned study, John J. Conder has created a new and more vital understanding of naturalism in American literature. Moving from the Hobbesian dilemma between causation and free will down through Bergson's concept of dual selves, Conder defines a view of determinism so rich in possibilities that it can serve as the inspiration of literary works of astonishing variety and unite them in a single, though developing, naturalistic tradition in American letters. At the heart of this book, beyond its philosophic discussion, is Conder's reading of key works in the naturalistic canon, beginning with Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" and "The Blue Hotel." The special character of determinism in Crane is, Conder holds, the source of his complexity and striking originality. He finds a stricter determinism in Norris's McTeague. In Dreiser, however, the naturalistic tradition develops toward a fusion of determinism and freedom in a single work, and this fusion in a different guise operates in Dos Passos's view of self in Manhattan Transfer. With Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath the uniting of determinism and freedom finds its fullest realization in the concept of dual selves, one determined, one free. In Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! the concept of the dual self appears in its most complex form. The developments in the work of Steinbeck and Faulkner, Conder believes, bring the classic phase of American literary naturalism to a close. Naturalism in American Fiction illuminates a group of major literary works and revives a theoretic consideration of naturalism. It thus makes a fundamental contribution to American studies.
Download or read book Essays on Determinism in American Literature written by Sydney J. Krause and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Essays on Determinism in American Literature written by Luther Stearns Mansfield and published by Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press. This book was released on 1964 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Four Views on Free Will written by John Martin Fischer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-02-04 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the concepts and interactions of free will, moralresponsibility, and determinism, this text represents the mostup-to-date account of the four major positions in the free willdebate. Four serious and well-known philosophers explore the opposingviewpoints of libertarianism, compatibilism, hard incompatibilism,and revisionism The first half of the book contains each philosopher’sexplanation of his particular view; the second half allows them todirectly respond to each other’s arguments, in a lively andengaging conversation Offers the reader a one of a kind, interactive discussion Forms part of the acclaimed Great Debates in Philosophyseries
Download or read book Free Will written by Sam Harris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion. A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion. In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.
Download or read book Determinism or Free Will written by Chapman Cohen and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Determinism or Free-Will?" by Chapman Cohen. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Download or read book Causes Laws and Free Will written by Kadri Vihvelin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-06 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Common sense tells us that we are morally responsible for our actions only if we have free will -- and that we have free will only if we are able to choose among alternative actions. Common sense tells us that we do have free will and are morally responsible for many of the things we do. Common sense also tells us that we are objects in the natural world, governed by its laws. Nevertheless, many contemporary philosophers deny that we have free will or that free will is a necessary prerequisite for moral responsibility. Some hold that we are morally responsible only if we are somehow exempt from the laws of nature. Causes, Laws, and Free Will defends a thesis that has almost disappeared from the contemporary philosophical landscape by arguing that this philosophical flight from common sense is a mistake. We have free will even if everything we do is predictable given the laws of nature and the past, and we are morally responsible whatever the laws of nature turn out to be. The impulses that tempt us into thinking that determinism robs us of free will spring from mistakes -- mistakes about the metaphysics of causation, mistakes about the nature of laws, and mistakes about the logic of counterfactuals.
Download or read book Free Will written by Meghan Griffith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of whether humans are free to make their own decisions has long been debated and it continues to be a controversial topic today. In Free Will: The Basics readers are provided with a clear and accessible introduction to this central but challenging philosophical problem. The questions which are discussed include: Does free will exist? Or is it illusory? Can we be free even if everything is determined by a chain of causes? If our actions are not determined, does this mean they are just random or a matter of luck? In order to have the kind of freedom required for moral responsibility, must we have alternatives? What can recent developments in science tell us about the existence of free will? Because these questions are discussed without prejudicing one view over others and all technical terminology is clearly explained, this book is an ideal introduction to free will for the uninitiated.
Download or read book Literally Free written by Robert Hoffman and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Naturalism in American Fiction written by John J. Conder and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-03-17 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this closely reasoned study, John J. Conder has created a new and more vital understanding of naturalism in American literature. Moving from the Hobbesian dilemma between causation and free will down through Bergson's concept of dual selves, Conder defines a view of determinism so rich in possibilities that it can serve as the inspiration of literary works of astonishing variety and unite them in a single, though developing, naturalistic tradition in American letters. At the heart of this book, beyond its philosophic discussion, is Conder's reading of key works in the naturalistic canon, beginning with Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" and "The Blue Hotel." The special character of determinism in Crane is, Conder holds, the source of his complexity and striking originality. He finds a stricter determinism in Norris's McTeague. In Dreiser, however, the naturalistic tradition develops toward a fusion of determinism and freedom in a single work, and this fusion in a different guise operates in Dos Passos's view of self in Manhattan Transfer. With Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath the uniting of determinism and freedom finds its fullest realization in the concept of dual selves, one determined, one free. In Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! the concept of the dual self appears in its most complex form. The developments in the work of Steinbeck and Faulkner, Conder believes, bring the classic phase of American literary naturalism to a close. Naturalism in American Fiction illuminates a group of major literary works and revives a theoretic consideration of naturalism. It thus makes a fundamental contribution to American studies.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Free Will written by Robert Kane and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-07-27 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition of the Oxford Handbook of Free Will is intended to be a sourcebook and guide to current work on free will and related subjects. Its focus is on writings of the past forty years, in which there has been a resurgence of interest in traditional issues about the freedom of the will in the light of new developments in the sciences, philosophy and humanistic studies. Special attention is given to research on free will of the first decade of the twenty-first century since the publication of the first edition of the Handbook. All the essays have been newly written or rewritten for this volume. In addition, there are new essayists and essays surveying topics that have become prominent in debates about free will in the past decade, including new work on the relation of free will to physics, the neurosciences, cognitive science, psychology and empirical philosophy, new versions of traditional views (compatibilist, incompatibilist, libertarian, etc.) and new views (e.g., revisionism) that have emerged. The twenty-eight essays by prominent international scholars and younger scholars cover a host of free will related issues, such as moral agency and responsibility, accountability and blameworthiness in ethics, autonomy, coercion and control in social theory, criminal liability, responsibility and punishment in legal theory, issues about the relation of mind to body, consciousness and the nature of action in philosophy of mind and the cognitive and neurosciences, questions about divine foreknowledge, providence and human freedom in philosophy of religion, and general metaphysical questions about necessity and possibility, determinism, time and chance, quantum reality, causation and explanation.
Download or read book Free Will and Determinism written by Bernard Berofsky and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Free Will Delusion written by James B. Miles and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poverty is not accident, but design. We are not all equal before the law. And the central message of contemporary ethics is that only some people matter.
Download or read book Living Without Free Will written by Derk Pereboom and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-11-02 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that morality, meaning and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible for our actions.
Download or read book Free Will and Determinism written by Clifford Williams and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 1980-01-01 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nicely conceived, very clearly written. . . . A high level of philosophic substance and sophistication." --David M. Mowry, SUNY at Plattsburgh
