Free Will and Determinism
The Oldest Debate in Philosophy, Including the Problem of Moral Responsibility, the Challenge of Neuroscience, and the Question of Whether Your Choices Are Truly Your OwnBy Alex Omberg
Length3h 53m
About this audiobook
Are your choices truly your own, or is free will the mind's greatest illusion?
You chose to read this sentence. At least, it feels that way. But what if every decision you have ever made was predetermined before you were even born?
For more than two millennia, the debate between free will and determinism has haunted the greatest minds in history. If our actions are simply the inevitable consequences of prior causes—genetics, environment, and the laws of physics—then the entire architecture of human morality, justice, and personal achievement threatens to collapse. How can we punish the guilty or praise the virtuous if everyone is merely acting out a biological script?
In Free Will and Determinism, Alex Omberg delivers a gripping, highly accessible exploration of philosophy's oldest and most consequential debate. From the ancient insights of Aristotle to the startling modern discoveries of brain-imaging technology, this book unpacks the paradox of human agency with unparalleled clarity.
Audiobook details
GenrePhilosophy, Science and Nature
Length3 hrs 53 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateApr 12, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Title Page
53Genuine Versus Counterfactual Intervention
2Introduction: The Feeling That May Be an Illusion
54Moral Responsibility Without Alternatives
3Chapter 1: The Ancient Roots
55The Debate Continues
4The Conditions of Responsibility
56Chapter 8: The Neuroscience Challenge
5Fate and the Stoic Solution
57The Libet Experiments
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6The Epicurean Swerve
58Wegner and the Illusion of Conscious Will
7Augustine and the Bondage of the Will
59The Methodological Critique
8The Ancient Legacy
60Schurger's Revision
9Chapter 2: The Clockwork Universe
61What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Show
10Hobbes and the Mechanism of Will
62The Persistence of Phenomenology
11Spinoza's Radical Necessity
63The Limits of Debunking
12The Demon of Perfect Prediction
64Living With Uncertainty
13Liberty as Absence of Impediment
65Chapter 9: The Hard Road
14The Price of Mechanism
66The Hard Determinist Tradition
15Chapter 3: The Categorical Imperative Requires Freedom
67The Argument from Manipulation
16The Fact of Moral Obligation
68Hard Incompatibilism
17Two Standpoints, Two Worlds
69The Illusion Explanation
18The Two Perspectives Argument
70Living Without Free Will
19Transcendental Freedom
71The Psychological Difficulty
20The Paradox of Noumenal Causation
72Challenges and Objections
21The Sacrificial Move
73The Question of Self-Conception
22Chapter 4: The Soft Path
74The Austere Conclusion
23Liberty as Acting According to Will
75Chapter 10: The New Compatibilists
24Necessity as Constant Conjunction
76Frankfurt's Hierarchical Model
25Mill's Refinement
77Fischer and Ravizza's Reasons-Responsiveness
26The Source of Action
78Dennett's Evolutionary Pragmatism
27The Conditional Analysis
79Vargas's Revisionism
28The Appeal to Consequence
80The Mesh Theory
29The Persistent Doubt
81The Quality of Will
30Chapter 5: The Consequence Argument
82The Continuing Debate
31The Structure of Necessity
83Chapter 11: The Stakes of the Debate
32The Transfer Principle
84Criminal Justice and Punishment
33Where Does It Fail?
85Personal Relationships
34The Modal Challenge
86Self-Understanding and Achievement
35The Fixity of the Past
87Political Implications
36The Persistence of the Argument
88The Existential Dimension
37The Terms of Engagement
89Does the Debate Matter?
38Chapter 6: The Rollback Argument
90The Weight of Uncertainty
39The Libertarian Commitment
91Epilogue: The Weight of the Question
40The Classical Formulation
92The Incompatibility of Answers
41The Problem of Luck
93What We Have Learned
42Indeterminism in Nature
94Living Without Answers
43Could Have Done Otherwise
95The Persistence of the Feeling
44Kane's Effort
96The Question's Value
45The Impossibility Argument
97The Enduring Mystery
46The Dialectical Situation
98The Weight of Freedom
47Chapter 7: The Frankfurt Cases
99Appendix A: Timeline
48The Original Scenario
100Appendix B: Annotated Further Reading
49The Dialectical Impact
101Primary Sources
50The Flicker of Freedom
102Secondary Sources
51Blockage and Bypassing
103Collections
52The Conditional Analysis Revisited
104Online Resources
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