Freedom and the Self

Freedom and the Self

Essays on the Philosophy of David Foster Wallace

Edited by: Steven Cahn and Maureen Eckert

Columbia University Press | 2015

https://doi.org/10.7312/cahn16152

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About this book

In Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will, editors Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert presented David Foster Wallace's original challenge to Richard Taylor's argument for fatalism. In this collection of essays, notable philosophers assess Wallace's reply to Taylor as well as other aspects of Wallace's thought. The volume includes an introduction by Cahn and Eckert and essays by William Hasker, Gila Sher, Marcello Oreste Fiocco, Daniel R. Kelly, and Nathan Ballantyne and Justin Tosi, as well as Maureen Eckert. These thinkers explore Wallace's philosophical engagements and unlock key components of his groundbreaking intellectual and creative work.

Contemporary philosophers assess the late author’s ideas on fatalism, free will, and art.

Author information

CahnSteven:

Steven M. Cahn (PhD, Philosophy, Columbia) is Professor of Philosophy at The City University of New York Graduate Center, where he served for nearly a decade as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, then as Acting President. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including From Student to Scholar (Columbia, 2008), Fate, Time, and Language (Columbia, 2010), Polishing Your Prose (Columbia, 2013), Freedom and the Self (Columbia, 2015), Happiness and Goodness (Columbia, 2015), and Religion Within Reason (Columbia, 2017); his textbooks and anthologies on ethics, philosophy of religion, and introduction to philosophy, published by Oxford, have appeared in multiple editions.Steven M. Cahn is professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has written or edited some fifty books, including Fate, Logic, and Time; God, Reason, and Religion; Saints and Scamps: Ethics in Academia; and From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor.

Maureen Eckert is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She teaches courses in a variety of areas, including ancient Greek philosophy, logical paradoxes, and free will. With Steven M. Cahn, she edited Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will.

Reviews

An impressive anthology of seminal scholarship.

Recommended.

Philosophically rigorous... This collection of essays provides insight into the philosophical career of celebrated author Wallace and serves as a good introduction to the metaphysical problems surrounding determinism, time travel, and free will. Recommended for all libraries.

Stephen J. Burn, University of Glasgow:
In the last decade, Wallace scholarship has often confined itself to narrow corridors, covering and re-covering excursions that have become increasingly familiar. This collection opens up a new wing of the critical mansion, not only building up our understanding of Wallace's important early engagement with Taylor but also pressing his investigations toward lively new dialogues with John McFarlane, David Lewis, Archilochus, Richard Rorty, and many others.

Patrick Todd, University of Edinburgh:
Cahn and Eckhert have here assembled a very fine collection of essays on philosophical themes in the work of the acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, whose philosophical talents are only just being recognized. Philosophers interested in the topic of fatalism should take special note, as well as those interested in Wallace's work more generally.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
CONTENTS Free access PDF PDF	v
Introduction Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	vii
1. David Foster Wallace and the Fallacies of “Fatalism” William Hasker Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
2. Wallace, Free Choice, and Fatalism Gila Sher Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	31
3. Fatalism and the Metaphysics of Contingency M. Oreste Fiocco Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	57
4. Fatalism, Time Travel, and System J Maureen Eckert Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	93
5. David Foster Wallace as American Hedgehog Daniel R. Kelly Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	109
6. David Foster Wallace on the Good Life Nathan Ballantyne and Justin Tosi Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	133
CONTRIBUTORS Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	169
INDEX Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	171

Freedom and the Self

Essays on the Philosophy of David Foster Wallace

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