Natural Agency

• Acknowledgments; Introduction; Notes; Part I. The Problems of Natural Agency: 1. A theory in search of its problem; 2. Commitments of the ethical perspective; 3. Commitments of the natural perspective; 4. The core of the problem of action - and a plausible solution; Part II. The Value of a Causal Theory of Action: 1. A traditional approach to the problem of natural agency; 2. Is action possible under determination 3. Is action possible under indeterminism? 4. A comparison with Dennett's elbow room; 5. The conditional analysis argument; Part III. Developing a Causal Theory of Action: 1. Causal analyses of action; 2. The challenge of Akrasia; Part IV. The Challenge of Causal Deviance: Part V. Coping with Basic Deviance: 1. The promise of the sensitivity strategy 2. Alternative versions of the sensitivity strategy; 3. Assessing the sensitivity strategy 4. Sensitive and sustained causation; Part VI. Limits for the Causal Theory of Action: 1. Dealing with the Agent-Causationist syndrome; 2. The place of the causal theory of action in the wider project of reconciliatory naturalism; Bibliography; Index.

"Bishop presents his theory in great detail. His discussion is always rich, subtle, insightful, helpfully repetitive (he often stops to remind us just what stage his inquiry has reached), well written (technical without being overwhelming and with a minimum of non-English formulae), well informed (his references to the literature, some of it very recent, are plentiful and apt), and fair-minded (for a compatibilist, he is admirably sensitive to incompatibilist concerns). In addition, the book is attractively and carefully produced...In sum, it is a book very much worth reading." The Philosophical Review