Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will

David Hodgson will soon retire as a Judge of Appeal of the New South Wales Supreme Court, after a long legal career. During that career, he maintained a keen interest and involvement in philosophy. He has published two previous philosophical books through Oxford University Press, Consequences of Utilitarianism and The Mind Matters, and also numerous philosophical articles on consciousness, free will and plausible reasoning.

• INTRODUCTION ; The problem of free will and responsibility ; Compatibilism ; Haldane's argument ; How I will proceed ; 1. FOUNDATIONAL BELIEFS ; Can I be certain that I exist? ; The need for language ; Experiences and the external world ; Foundational beliefs ; 2. TRUTH AND RATIONALITY ; Truth ; Relativity of truth? ; Rationality ; Fallacies and biases ; Stich's argument ; A legal example ; Core assertions about truth and rationality ; 3. PLAUSIBLE REASONING ; Formal and informal reasoning ; Induction ; Bayes' theorem ; Illustration of Bayes' theorem ; Levels of cognitive processes ; Core assertions about plausible reasoning ; 4. CONSCIOUSNESS AND DECISION-MAKING ; Dual aspects ; Characteristic features of conscious experiences ; Subjectivity ; Qualia and unity ; Neural correlates of consciousness ; The efficacy of conscious experiences ; Three questions ; Rule-determined processes do not need consciousness ; Core assertions about consciousness and decision-making ; 5. GESTALTS AND RULES ; The argument outlined ; Laws and rules ; The Game of Life and computation ; Tricks of consciousness ; Some further thoughts ; Core assertions about gestalts and rules ; 6. HOW GESTALTS PROMOTE RATIONALITY ; Evolutionary origins ; Aesthetic judgments ; Plausible reasoning ; Conclusion ; Core assertions about how gestalts promote rationality ; 7. SCIENCE AND DETERMINISM ; A lawful universe ; Quantum mechanics ; The free will theorem ; Explanation of the theorem ; Implications ; Time and the block universe ; Core assertions about science and determinism ; 8. NEUROSCIENCE AND CONSCIOUS CHOICE ; Science and the brain ; A general picture ; The Cartesian theatre ; The scale and nature of quantum effects ; Libet, Gazzaniga and Wegner ; Core assertions about neuroscience and conscious choice ; 9. INDETERMINISTIC FREE WILL ; Will and responsibility ; Comparison with Kane ; Agent-causation ; Compatibilism ; Assessment of compatibilism ; Does luck swallow everything? ; More about luck ; Core assertions about indeterministic free will ; 10. VALUE JUDGMENTS ; A different philosophical approach ; Natural imperatives ; Absolute imperatives ; Prima facie imperatives ; No reasonable irreconcilable differences ; Why be moral? ; Good, evil and beauty ; Community practices and laws ; Legal systems ; Capacity for reasonable value judgments ; Core assertions about value judgments ; 11. RESPONSIBILITY AND RETRIBUTION ; Responses to wrong conduct ; Overview ; Australian criminal law ; Retribution as a restriction on State compulsion ; Why retribution should be maintained ; Philosophical bases for retribution ; The future of retribution ; Core assertions about responsibility and retribution ; 12. THE BIG PICTURE ; The scientific account ; An experienced universe ; Constraint, empowerment and guidance ; Religious belief: a subject for rational enquiry ; A value-embedded universe ; Where do we come from? ; Where are we going? ; Can more specific beliefs be supported? ; Potential for evil and good ; Core assertions about the big picture ; APPENDIX A WHY BAYES' THEOREM WORKS ; APPENDIX B AGAINST FUNDAMENTALISM: BIBLICAL MORALITY ; Abraham and Isaac ; The Passover ; The Promised Land ; The New Testament ; REFERENCES

Hodgson is to be commended for making explicit the commitments driving his own theorising about free will. That is a policy we should all adopt more often.