Free Will

The debate between free will and its opposing doctrine, determinism, is one of the key issues in philosophy. Ilham Dilman brings together all the dimensions of the problem of free will with examples from literature, ethics and psychoanalysis, and draws out valuable insights from both sides of the freedom-determinism divide. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to this highly important question and examines the contributions made by sixteen of the most outstanding thinkers from the time of early Greece to modern times: Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer, Freud, Sartre, Weil, Wittgenstein, Moore.

Introduction; Part 1 Early Greek Thinkers; Chapter 1 Homer and the Iliad; Chapter 2 Sophocles' Oedipus; Chapter 3 Plato and Moral Determinism; Chapter 4 Aristotle; Part 2 The Coming of Age of Christianity; Chapter 5 St Augustine; Chapter 6 St Thomas Aquinas; Part 3 The Rise of Science; Chapter 7 Descartes' Dualism; Chapter 8 Spinoza; Chapter 9 Hume and Kant; Part 4 The Age of Psychology; Chapter 10 Schopenhauer; Chapter 11 Freud; Chapter 12 Sartre; Chapter 13 Simone Weil; Chapter 14 G E Moore; Chapter 15 Wittgenstein; Chapter 16 Conclusion;