Freedom and the Self

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.

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. -- Patrick Todd, University of Edinburgh 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. -- Stephen J. Burn, University of Glasgow 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. Library Journal Recommended. Choice An impressive anthology of seminal scholarship. The Midwest Book Review

• Introduction, by Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert 1. David Foster Wallace and the Fallacies of "Fatalism," by William Hasker 2. Wallace, Free Choice, and Fatalism, by Gila Sher 3. Fatalism and the Metaphysics of Contingency, by M. Oreste Fiocco 4. Fatalism, Time Travel, and System J, by Maureen Eckert 5. David Foster Wallace as American Hedgehog, by Daniel R. Kelly 6. David Foster Wallace on the Good Life, by Nathan Ballantyne and Justin Tosi List of Contributors Index