Freedom within reason /

Several important books on free will have been published during the last few years. Many of these books are quite scholarly, and defend views that were, until recently, unfashionable. Wolf (Johns Hopkins) has given us a short, relatively unscholarly book that is very long on substance. Although her view is original, it is in the spirit of "compatibilist" accounts: Wolf tries to show how we can be free and responsible beings, yet be part of the natural order. She begins by articulating "the dilemma of autonomy": we believe that we are responsible agents, yet responsibility seems to require ultimate independence from external forces, and this is incoherent or logically impossible. Wolf argues against the necessity of autonomy, and also against one influential compatibilist account ("the real self view"). She develops and defends "the reason view"--the idea that freedom and responsibility involve the ability to act in accordance with reason, which she understands as the ability to act on the basis of the true and the good. In Wolf's view the problem of free will is not just a metaphysical problem, but also a metaethical one. This book is brilliantly written and full of stimulating argument. Because it states the fundamental issues intuitively and clearly, it is accessible to a wide audience. Because many claims and arguments are original and well presented, it will also appeal to professionals. The book's important weakness is its lack of references and consequent failure to engage directly with recent literature on free will. Still, it is an important book that deserves a very wide audience. Community college and up. -D. Jamieson, University of Colorado at Boulder