Dario Tonelli’s monograph explores free will: Are our actions determined by implacable laws of nature (i.e. “determinism”) or are humans free to choose?

In Tonelli’s thought-experiment, given a choice between chicken or steak at a restaurant, is it predetermined which item you order? If we could go back in time and re-create this situation, down to the last atom, would the patron always choose the same item?

Tonelli first shows that “freedom” can mean several different things. He then explores compatibilism: the position that determinism is compatible with free will. He also dissects the essentialist view, that people have autonomy apart from their brain chemistry or history.

The author also investigates questions of identity: Is the “you” that chose the chicken or steak, the same “you” that could choose the other item? Tonelli says “no” because “We can’t remove a few selected facts from a person’s life without rewriting the whole story… ‘You’ means the whole package.”

Tonelli’s treatment of questions of accountability for our actions involve what he calls “functional free will,” i.e. the ability to change one’s behavior based on expected penalties or rewards. The author accepts a naturalistic view, namely that our behavior is determined by natural laws—although he allows that a conscious decision-making processes (e.g. weighing options between two choices) is congruent with those laws. He also owns that we have a subjective sense of agency; even the most hardened determinists appear to weigh options and make deliberate choices.

Tonelli makes a sustained argument that is open-minded rather than dogmatic, more exploratory than polemical. His prose is jargon-free and accessible. Additionally, his thought-experiments, for example his consideration of what a self-driving car would need to have free will, are illuminating, and he evaluates fairly the strengths and weaknesses of opposing arguments.

But he doesn’t equivocate. He reaches conclusions regarding the question of free will from a naturalistic perspective that will engage both philosophy academics and general readers alike.

Also available as an ebook.