Introduction

Chapter 1, “Introduction,” defines key terms which will be used throughout the book, clarifies the central theses of the book, and explains the general path and argument strategy which will be employed in defending the key theses of the book. Terms defined are libertarianism about free will, compatibilism about free will, causal determinism, hard determinism, and hard incompatibilism. It is clarified that in this book an event-causal theory of libertarian free will which is significantly similar to that of Robert Kane will be defended. The earlier chapters of the book will defend the coherence of the view and argue for its superiority to compatibilism. Additionally, it is noted that while there is a paucity of evidence for the existence of such libertarian free will, it will be argued in the later chapters that we have good moral reasons to believe we have such free will.