Necessity, Volition, and Love

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One of the most influential of contemporary philosophers, Harry Frankfurt has made major contributions to the philosophy of action, moral psychology, and the study of Descartes. This collection of essays complements an earlier, successful collection published by Cambridge, The Importance of What We Care About. These essays deal in general with foundational metaphysical and epistemological issues concerning Descartes, moral philosophy, philosophical anthropology, political philosophy, and religion. A hallmark of Frankfurt's work is his crisp and incisive style, which means that these essays should appeal to a wide range of philosophers and to readers in neighboring disciplines with philosophical interests.

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1998

About the author

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Harry Gordon Frankfurt was an American philosopher. He was a professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton University, where he taught from 1990 until 2002. Frankfurt also taught at Yale University, Rockefeller University, and Ohio State University.
Frankfurt made significant contributions to fields like ethics and philosophy of mind. The attitude of caring played a central role in his philosophy. To care about something means to see it as important and reflects the person's character. According to Frankfurt, a person is someone who has second-order volitions or who cares about what desires he or she has. He contrasts persons with wantons. Wantons are beings that have desires but do not care about which of their desires is translated into action. In the field of ethics, Frankfurt gave various influential counterexamples, so-called Frankfurt cases, against the principle that moral responsibility depends on the ability to do otherwise. His most popular book is On Bullshit, which discusses the distinction between bullshitting and lying.

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2 reviews All reviews
April 17,2025
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Frankfurt seems to be the academic version of The Three Stooges. The slapstick and non-sense is there, but, as a bureaucrat, Frankfurt lacks the humor. And it should be obvious he does not need to be interesting as he is not entertaining a market, but rather the bureaucrats that gave him this sinecure.

> If this is what Albritton means by "unfreedom of will," it is easy to share his doubt that the condition occurs anywhere in our lives. The impossibility of un-freedom of will, or of willing unfreely, seems to follow readily from an elementary aspect of the nature of volitional acts such as choosing and deciding.

Smart. He overlooks the banana peel and goes for the tripping in the semantic shoelaces. So un-funny!
April 17,2025
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Had trouble understanding a lot of this book. I felt like I understood, and enjoyed "The Importance of What We Care About" a lot more.
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