Free Will and Consciousness: How Might They Work?

This volume is aimed at readers who wish to move beyond debates about the existence of free will and the efficacy of consciousness and closer to appreciating how free will and consciousness might operate. It draws from philosophy and psychology, the two fields that have grappled most fundamentally with these issues. In this wide-ranging volume, the contributors explore such issues as how free will is connected to rational choice, planning, and self-control; roles for consciousness in decision making; the nature and power of conscious deciding; connections among free will, consciousness, and quantum mechanics; why free will and consciousness might have evolved; how consciousness develops in individuals; the experience of free will; effects on behavior of the belief that free will is an illusion; and connections between free will and moral responsibility in lay thinking. Collectively, these state-of-the-art chapters by accomplished psychologists and philosophers provide a glimpse into the future of research on free will and consciousness.

Francis Eppes Professor of Psychology, Florida State University. Baumeister was included in the most highly cited scientist category by Thomson ISI, among the top 243 psychologists/psychiatrists (about 30 of whom are social psychologists). He is the author or lead editor of 21 books, including three with us — Identity: Cultural Change and the Struggle for Self (1986); The Cultural Animal (2005); and Psychology and Free Will (2008), and two others that are currently under contract.