Questions concerning free will are intertwined with issues in almost every area of philosophy, from metaphysics to philosophy of mind to moral philosophy, and are also informed by work in different areas of science (principally physics, neuroscience and social psychology). Free will is also a perennial concern of serious thinkers in theology and in non-western traditions. Because free will can be approached from so many different perspectives and has implications for so many debates, a comprehensive survey needs to encompass an enormous range of approaches. This book is the first to draw together leading experts on every aspect of free will, from those who are central to the current philosophical debates, to non-western perspectives, to scientific contributions and to those who know the rich history of the subject. Chapter 37 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

"Great philosophers as well as great artists have the gift of inspiring profoundly different conceptions and meaning in the individuals who contemplate their work," writes Joseph Owens. Even now, twenty-three centuries after the philosopher's death, the study of Aristotle continues to challenge us and to broaden our intellectual outlook. In this volume, John R. Catan has gathered together 18 major essays by the well-known aristotelian scholar Joseph Owens that have influenced current opinion on the philosopher. The collection represents the first well-rounded picture of Owens's interpretation of the theory of knowledge and associated cognitive problems in moral philosophy. Among the themes highlighted are: universality, cognition, matter and predication, the sciences, the soul, and nature. Included is a complete Owens bibliography, covering the years from 1946 to the present.

Provides a more balanced view of medieval philosophy, in contrast to the conventional neglect of Islamic and Jewish influences on medieval Latin-Christian thought Looks at the philosophy of the three great monotheistic traditions, unlike most standard works that discuss the history of single philosophical traditions Pays attention to the influence of Neoplatonism on the three traditions, an important topic in its own right

In Heir to the Fathers, author Gary V. Wood examines the ideas that guided John Quincy Adams throughout his political career. For Wood, it is Adams' understanding of The Constitution of the United States that foregrounds a crucial link between the principles laid-forth in The Declaration of Independence and the original intent of the Framers of The Constitution. Heir to the Fathers traces this link through an examination of Adams' celebrated essay, Jubilee of the Constitution and, most significantly, through his defense of a group of Africans who mutinied aboard the slave ship Amistad. The contradictory relationship between what is stated The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution and the treatment of African slaves has been a persistent problem in any attempt to understand the legacy of freedom in the United States. Adams' argument before the Supreme Court, based on his interpretation of constitutional law, is an example of how this unique political mind comes to terms with this contradiction without abandoning the spirit of America's founding principles. Wood's discussion of Adams' political and intellectual life invites readers to reexamination the principles upon which the United States of America was founded. Heir to the Fathers is a salient addition to the study of constitutional law and history and American political thought.

No realistic philosophy can be considered complete unless it includes a philosophy of nature. The philosophy of human nature is an area where most of the problems of the philosophy of nature occur, some of them in a crucial form. Moreover, the philosophy of human nature is an absolute prerequisite for a philosophically grounded ethics. Clearly, then, a knowledge of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas requires a study of the philosophy of human nature.

Frederick D. Wilhelmsen's Being and Knowing, rooted in the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, rests on two basic assertions: first, metaphysics is the science of being in its first and ultimate act, existence (the act by which all things manifest themselves); second, that existence is known not through observing objects, but in affirming through judgments that these objects are subjects of existence. The chapters of this book explore these Thomistic doctrines. Some explain St. Thomas Aquinas's philosophy of being. Others probe his epistemology. The complexity and density of Aquinas's theory of judgment (that truth is realized in the judgment of man), emphasized throughout most of the book, point not only to a deeper understanding of the nature of metaphysics, but they open doors to the clarification of philosophical issues germane to contemporary thought. This work addresses a number of metaphysical philosophical paradoxes. Wilhelmsen's exploration of them demonstrates why he was the preeminent American scholar of the Thomistic tradition. This volume is part of Transaction's series, the Library of Conservative Thought.