Christian List, "Why Free Will is Real" (Harvard UP, 2019)
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What is the classical problem of free will and why does it matter?
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Hello, and thank you for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talese. I'm Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figder, Alexis McLeod, and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is Christian List. Christian is professor of philosophy and political science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His work spans a broad range of topics in political theory, including rational choice theory, decision theory, the theory of group agency, as well as democratic theory. But his new book is titled Why Free Will is Real. It's just been published by Harvard University Press. I suspect listeners are acquainted with the classical problem of free will.
It runs roughly like this. Given our scientific view of the world, how is freedom of the will possible? I suspect also that listeners will be familiar with the various strategies for addressing the challenge. Some views just flatly deny that there's free will. Others attempt in various ways to render free will consistent with a physically deterministic world. Among these latter views, there's a tendency to redefine free will in a way that dissolves the apparent tension between freedom and physical determinism. In his new book, though, Christian List defends a robust conception of free will and shows that this conception is consistent with a scientific worldview. As usual, there's a lot to talk about, but also as usual, we begin with our guest.
Hello, Christian. Hi, Bob.
Hi.
How are you today? I'm very well. How are you? I'm doing great. Why don't you start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Yes. So I grew up in rural Germany in a very small town called Naschdetten, which is located halfway between Frankfurt and Cologne. But then I went to university in the UK, in Oxford, and I studied mathematics and philosophy. So that's where my interest in philosophical problems started. was really first developed in detail. I then went on to do graduate school in political science also in Oxford. So I got a PhD in political science. I worked on mathematical models of individual and collective decision making in the area of social choice theory. And so then for the first several years of my career, I taught primarily political science, political philosophy, social choice theory. But sort of step by step, I am.
ended up moving more and more into core areas of philosophy again. And now I teach in the philosophy department at the London School of Economics. And so I teach a variety of different things, ranging from decision theory, rational choice theory, and social choice theory on one end of the spectrum of my interests to more metaphysical questions on the other end of the spectrum.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the classical problem of free will and why does it matter?
0:00–5:29
2
How does Christian List define a robust conception of free will?
5:29–12:11
3
Why does List argue that intentional agency is essential for free will?
12:11–20:49
4
What are the three alternative‑possibility definitions and which does List favor?
20:49–29:11
5
How can agency‑level indeterminism coexist with physical determinism?
29:11–37:18
6
What is the difference‑making (interventionist) account of causation and how does it defend mental causation?
37:18–46:07
7
Does List’s framework allow non‑human animals, AI or group agents to have free will?
46:07–56:37
8
What future research directions does Christian List plan to pursue after this book?
56:37–1:04:38
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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Jonathan Quong, "Political Philosophy: The Puzzle of Legitimate Injustice" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Daniel Cohnitz and Jussi Haukioja, "Foundations for Metasemantics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Philippe Huneman, "When Metaphysics Meets Biology: Kantian Approaches to the Concept of An Organism" (Routledge, 2026)
Rivka Weinberg, "The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time" (Oxford UP, 2026)
PJ DiPietro, "Sideways Selves Travesti and Jotería, "Struggles Across the Américas" (U Texas Press, 2025)