The Importance of What We Care About: Philosophical Essays

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Cambridge University Press, May 27, 1988 - Philosophy - 190 pages
This volume is a collection of thirteen seminal essays on ethics, free will, and the philosophy of mind. The essays deal with such central topics as freedom of the will, moral responsibility, the concept of a person, the structure of the will, the nature of action, the constitution of the self, and the theory of personal ideals. By focusing on the distinctive nature of human freedom, Professor Frankfurt is ale to explore fundamental problems of what it is to be a person and of what one should care about in life.

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Contents

Alternate possibilities and moral responsibility
1
Freedom of the will and the concept of a person II
11
Coercion and moral responsibility
26
Three concepts of free action
47
Identification and externality
58
The problem of action
69
The importance of what we care about
80
What we are morally responsible for
95
Necessity and desire
104
On bullshit
117
Equality as a moral ideal
134
Identification and wholeheartedness
159
Rationality and the unthinkable
177
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