Animal Choice and Human Freedom: On the Genealogy of Self-determined Action

by Michael Yudanin

Overview

In Animal Choice and Human Freedom: On the Genealogy of Self-Determined Action, Michael Yudanin argues that describing freedom conceptually is impossible without explaining how it can exist in the world. Yudanin develops an account of freedom’s instantiation in biological agents and provides several prerequisites that are necessary for its exercise. He demonstrates that freedom is linked to the form of life and distinguishes between choice in non-verbal animals and human freedom, where the latter is enabled by the development of language and thus possesses a distinct character. Following this descriptive account, Yudanin explores freedom’s evolutionary history, explaining how it developed in the course of the evolution of species.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793620194
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	09/02/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	302
File size:	886 KB

About the Author

Michael Yudanin received his PhD from the University of Georgia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The Question of Freedom

Part I: Freedom and its Forms

Chapter 1: Basic Characterization of Freedom

Chapter 2: Differential Characterization of Freedom

Part II: The Evolution of Freedom

Chapter 3: The Philosophy of Evolution

Chapter 4: Biological Evolution

Chapter 5: Evolution as the Unfolding of Freedom

Conclusion and the Road Ahead

References

Endnotes

Editorial Reviews

"Since Descartes, modern philosophers have erected an impassible divide between human and brute animal life, making unintelligible the embodiment and origin of humanity. Michael Yudanin's new book, Animal Choice and Human Freedom, explores how nature can give rise to free agents and what distinguishes the freedom of rational animals from the choice of animals that lack language and conceptual comprehension. Drawing upon Hegel and modern evolutionary theory, Yudanin shows how animals are not wholly captive to instinct, but can choose even without being able to engage in discourse. He then delineates the evolutionary development that makes animal choice possible. On this basis, Yudanin addresses the key question of human origins, how evolution can provide the biological endowment sufficient for rational agency, and how this endowment makes possible a freedom that is distinctly different from animal choice. In so doing, Yudanin supplies a key part of the fundamental philosophical injunction to know thyself. Reader's will find Yudanin's book an illuminating adventure in self-discovery."

Richard Dien Winfield

Yudanin’s book examines the philosophical concept of freedom and the unique difficulties of discussing it. Dismissing the concerns of Kant, who concluded that freedom is conceptually beyond human understanding, Yudanin (independent scholar) argues freedom is simply “the ability to do what [one] want[s]" (p. 13). Freedom is a feeling that runs in the background of everyday dealings with the world. Yudanin discusses various philosophical positions (compatibilism, libertarianism, determinism) but notes that none of them presents an argument about how free agents came to have freedom. He explores this problem. He defends a form of compatibilism through evolutionary roots of freedom in biological entities functioning separately from their environments; to survive, living beings must continually make choices to do something. Basing his discussion in Agamben’s distinction between zoe and bios, Yudanin concludes that representing consciousness found in human beings and various mammals serves as the “birthplace of freedom" (p. 6), and he examines the ways animal self-determined choice and human freedom compare. This is a complex topic, and Yudanin’s writing is clear and accessible.. . Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

Yudanin’s book examines the philosophical concept of freedom and the unique difficulties of discussing it. Dismissing the concerns of Kant, who concluded that freedom is conceptually beyond human understanding, Yudanin (independent scholar) argues freedom is simply “the ability to do what [one] want[s]" (p. 13). Freedom is a feeling that runs in the background of everyday dealings with the world. Yudanin discusses various philosophical positions (compatibilism, libertarianism, determinism) but notes that none of them presents an argument about how free agents came to have freedom. He explores this problem. He defends a form of compatibilism through evolutionary roots of freedom in biological entities functioning separately from their environments; to survive, living beings must continually make choices to do something. Basing his discussion in Agamben’s distinction between zoe and bios, Yudanin concludes that representing consciousness found in human beings and various mammals serves as the “birthplace of freedom" (p. 6), and he examines the ways animal self-determined choice and human freedom compare. This is a complex topic, and Yudanin’s writing is clear and accessible.. . Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice

Yudanin’s book examines the philosophical concept of freedom and the unique difficulties of discussing it. Dismissing the concerns of Kant, who concluded that freedom is conceptually beyond human understanding, Yudanin (independent scholar) argues freedom is simply “the ability to do what [one] want[s]" (p. 13). Freedom is a feeling that runs in the background of everyday dealings with the world. Yudanin discusses various philosophical positions (compatibilism, libertarianism, determinism) but notes that none of them presents an argument about how free agents came to have freedom. He explores this problem. He defends a form of compatibilism through evolutionary roots of freedom in biological entities functioning separately from their environments; to survive, living beings must continually make choices to do something. Basing his discussion in Agamben’s distinction between zoe and bios, Yudanin concludes that representing consciousness found in human beings and various mammals serves as the “birthplace of freedom" (p. 6), and he examines the ways animal self-determined choice and human freedom compare. This is a complex topic, and Yudanin’s writing is clear and accessible.. . Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

CHOICE