Lexington Books
Pages: 302
•
Trim: 6½ x 9
978-1-7936-2018-7 • Hardback • September 2020 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
978-1-7936-2019-4 • eBook • September 2020 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Michael Yudanin received his PhD from the University of Georgia.
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
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
"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, University of Georgia