Congratulations to Neal Tognazzini

Neal has been awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by the Mellon Foundation. The Fellowships are administered by Mellon and the ACLS. He'll use the fellowship to finish up his dissertation on moral responsibility. He'll also have the opportunity to work on a planned book on Harry Frankfurt's philosophy.

Congratulations on this richly deserved award!

Action Theory Movies

Well, you've heard of "action films," how about "action theory films"?

First, I would recommend "Stranger Than Fiction."  Remember, I told you that the value of acting freely is the value of writing a sentence in the narrative of one's life.  Here Will Ferrell is a character in someone's novel...

Also, I'd recommend "Deja Vu," for interesting metaphysical reflections on changing the past, and so forth.  But to understand it, I think I'll have to see it again...

Have fun!

Summer Reading

I highly recommend the outstanding collection of essays by Andrews Reath, *Agency and Autonomy In Kant's Moral Theory* (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2006). I think these essays will be of wide interest to readers of the Garden of Forking Paths, even though the terms "Frankfurt-style Counterexamples," "Source Incompatibilism," "Free Will Skepticism," and so forth do not appear (or at least, I don't think they do).

Congratulations to Andy Reath for a superb volume! One of the things I like about Reath's essays is that they are genuinely engaging with Kant's texts while at the same time achieving a surprising (some might say miraculous) level of clarity. I'm not fully a compatibilist about fidelity to Kant's texts and clarity, but I'm a semicompatibilist, especially in the context of Reath's essays.

Bled Conference

Did anyone out there go to the Bled Conference? Any experiences you want to share? Was everyone singing the praises of Semicompatibilism? No, seriously, do you mind sharing some thoughts about this conference? What is the venue like?

Congratulations to Neal Tognazzini

Congratulations to Neal Tognazzini on winning UC Riverside's Excellence in Teaching Award. His course, "God", is, well, "awesome". This is a well-deserved honor.

Also, check out Neal's article in the current Australasian Journal of Philosophy.

Neal is a great "role-model"--for us faculty!

Civility

We have always had a policy of requiring civil discourse here at the Garden of Forking Paths, while at the same time (obviously) encouraging vigorous and lively debate. Recently, we have had to take action to block access to the blog by an individual who has repeatedly put his points in needlessly strong and offensive ways. In our view, rude and gratuitously insulting expression goes against the sprit of tolerance and mutual respect that is absolutely essential for productive and enjoyable discussion on this blog.

We continue to welcome proponents of all views and methodologies, and we insist on basic civility.

Talk Announcement

On November 17th at 3pm, Ted A. Warfield will give the Marshall Weinberg
Professor lecture at the Universitiy of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The title of the
lecture is:

"Ecumenical Necessary Conditions on Free Action (and other problems for
compatibilists)"

As you know, Ted, aka, "Fritz," is a regular contributor to the blog, and I'm sure he'll
uncover many problems for (traditional!) compatibilism.

Free Will

Hi Friends,

Sorry for what might seem like shameless self-promotion, but I figure, why change now?? Routledge has just published a four-volume reference work in their "Critical Concepts in Philosophy" Series, FREE WILL, which I edited (with a new introduction and also short introductions to each volume). It also has a nifty "chronology", which might be of some interest.

Unfortunately, as this is designed as a reference book for libraries, it is not published in paperback and is exorbitantly expensive. I wish that were otherwise, but perhaps in the future a truncated version can be published in paperback.

I would ask you to consider recommending to your home-institution libraries that they acquire this set of volumes. If libraries do not purchase it, I fear no one will see or have access to it, as it is too expensive even for my mother and father to buy it!

If you would like a brochure describing the volumes, let me know.

Have a great summer!

PS I believe the ISBN number, or some sort of identifying number, is:

Set: 0-415-32726-1

Robert Kane's Free Will Book

Robert Kane has just published an introductory book on Free Will in Oxford University Press's new series, Fundamentals of Philosophy (of which John Perry and I are general editors).  This is, not surprisingly, an outstanding book, and highly recommended. 

Congratulations to Robert Kane for this excellent book!

Congratulations to Peter Van Inwagen

Peter Van Inwagen has been selected for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  This is a distinguished honor, and obviously richly deserved.

Congratulations, Peter!

For more, see the Notre Dame University homepage: www.nd.edu