A college-level sourcebook and textbook on the problem of free will and determinism. Contains a history of the free will problem, a taxonomy of current free will positions, the standard argument against free will, the physics, biology, and neuroscience of free will, the most plausible and practical libertarian solution of the problem, and reviews of the work of the leading determinist, Ted Honderich, the leading libertarian, Robert Kane, the leading compatibilist, Daniel Dennett, and the agnostic, Alfred Mele. 480 pages, 40 figures, 15 sidebars, glossary, bibliography, index.

Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy

Politics & Social Sciences

Doyle, Bob

Philosophy

Information Philosopher

Is it possible that the most famous critic of quantum mechanics actually invented most of its fundamentally important concepts? 
Besides quantizing light energy and seeing its interchangeability with matter, E = mc2, Einstein was first to see many of the most fundamental aspects of quantum physics - the quantal derivation of the blackbody radiation law, nonlocality and instantaneous action-at-a-distance (1905), the internal structure of atoms (1906), wave-particle duality and the "collapse" of the wave aspect (1909), transition probabilities for emission and absorption processes that introduce indeterminism whenever matter and radiation interact, making quantum mechanics a statistical theory (1916-17), the indistinguishability of elementary particles with their strange quantum statistics (1925), and the nonseparability and entanglement of interacting identical particles (1935).
It took the physics community eighteen years to accept Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis. He saw wave-particle duality fifteen years before deBroglie, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, and Bohr. He saw indeterminism a decade before the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. He saw nonlocality as early as 1905, presenting it formally in 1927, but was ignored. In the 1935 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paper, he explored nonseparability, which was dubbed "entanglement" by Schrödinger. 
In a radical revision of the history of quantum physics, Bob Doyle explores Einstein's idea of objective reality to resolve several of today's most puzzling quantum mysteries, including the two-slit experiment, quantum entanglement, and microscopic irreversibility.

My God, He Plays Dice!: How Albert Einstein Invented Most Of Quantum Mechanics

A college and graduate-level textbook suitable for a one-semester course on metaphysics. Solutions are proposed for a few dozen classic problems, paradoxes, and puzzles in metaphysics, some dating back to the ancient Greeks. Solutions are proposed using the new methodology of information philosophy, which goes beyond logical puzzles and language games to analyze the information structures that underlie all logic and language. In part one, the information content in twenty-two classic problems in metaphysics is analyzed - Abstract Entities, Being and Becoming, Causality, Chance, Change, Coinciding Objects, Composition (Parts and Wholes), Constitution, Essentialism, Free Will or Determinism, God and Immortality, Identity, Individuation, Mind-Body Problem, Modality, Necessity or Contingency, Persistence, Possibility and Actuality, Space and Time, Universals, Vagueness, and the 20th-century quantum problem of Wave-Particle Duality. In part two, lessons learned from part one are applied to eleven classic puzzles and paradoxes that are frequently used to wrestle with metaphysical problems - The Debtor's Paradox, Dion and Theon, Frege's Puzzle, The Growing Argument, The Infinite Regress, The Problem of the Many, The Ship of Theseus, The Sorites Puzzle, The Statue and the Clay, and Tibbles, the Cat. Part three takes a closer look at the work of twenty-three metaphysicians who have made major contributions to the problems and puzzles above, including David Armstrong, Michael Burke, Rudolf Carnap, David Chalmers, Rod Chisholm, René Descartes, Peter Geach, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, David Lewis, E. Jonathan Lowe, Ruth Barcan Marcus, Trenton Merricks, Huw Price, Willard van Orman Quine, Michael Rea, Alan Sidelle, Ted Sider, Richard Taylor, Peter Unger, Peter van Inwagen, David Wiggins, and Timothy Williamson. Part four is a brief history of metaphysics, touching on the introduction and development of our problems, puzzles, and paradoxes. An appendix lists some of the great problems in philosophy, physics, cosmology, psychology, and biology that may soon be solved using the methods of information philosophy. Pages on the website www.metaphysicist.com correspond to each of the chapters of the book for further information, for corrections, and for suggestions, which will be incorporated in future editions of Metaphysics.

Metaphysics: Problems, Paradoxes, and Puzzles Solved?

This book argues that significant progress toward a plausible solution of the ancient philosophical problem of free will has been made over the past 125 years by a line of thinkers starting with William James. The latest work integrates Jamesian two-stage models of free will with the self-forming actions of Robert Kane, a leading libertarian and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Free Will. It also includes Daniel Dennett's Valerian Model and Alfred Mele's Modest Libertarianism. In this illustrated college-level sourcebook/textbook, Bob Doyle provides a history of the free will problem, a taxonomy of current free will positions, the standard argument against free will, the physics, biology, and neuroscience of free will, and extensive reviews of the work of Kane, Dennett, Mele, and the leading determinist philosopher, Ted Honderich. John Searle called it a scandal that after all the centuries of writing about free will, we have not agreed on much progress. According to Doyle, a more serious scandal today is that academic philosophers are convincing many young students that they are deterministic biological machines with only a "compatibilist free will," when genuine "libertarian" free will is available to us. Doyle recounts the many different forms of determinism that have been used over the centuries to deny human freedom and responsibility. To end the scandal, philosophers need to teach a two-stage model of free will and creativity that reconciles free will with indeterminism, just as David Hume reconciled freedom of action with determinism. The free-will model is actually triply compatible; compatible with an adequate determinism, compatible with indeterminism (since William James), and compatible with biological evolution. 'Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy' | Bob Doyle | Hardcover 9780983580270 | 480 pages, b&w, 40 figures, 15 sidebars, glossary, bibliography, index. $49.95USD Also available in paperback ($29.95) and various eBook editions.

A college-level sourcebook and textbook on several problems in philosophy, physics, and metaphysics, with tentative solutions using the new methodology of information philosophy, which goes beyond logic and language to the underlying information structures. Chapters include metaphysics, ontology, free will, value, good and evil, god and immortality, epistemology, universals, induction, meaning, mind, mind-body, consciousness, self and other minds, mental causation, an information interpretation of quantum mechanics, measurement problem, determinism, collapse of the wave function, entanglement, decoherence, SchrOdinger's cat, arrow of time, microscopic irreversibility, recurrence, emergence, origins of life and information. Appendices included on information, entropy and the second law, quantum physics, chance, an experience recorder and reproducer, cosmic creation process, and biosemiotics. 456 pages, 45 figures, glossary, bibliography, index.

Great Problems in Philosophy and Physics Solved?

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Books by Information Philosopher

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Information Philosopher publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy

My God, He Plays Dice!: How Albert Einstein Invented Most Of Quantum Mechanics

Metaphysics: Problems, Paradoxes, and Puzzles Solved?

Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy

Great Problems in Philosophy and Physics Solved?