The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits - Couverture souple

Greenfield, Kent

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1849543070 ISBN 13 : 9781849543071

Editeur : Biteback Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

We are all fixated on the idea of choice. As people we love to feel we have the choice, and little offends us more than when that notion is taken away from us. Western political theory is based on the consent of the governed. Our legal systems are built upon the argument that people freely bear responsibility for the choices we make. At the heart of consumer culture is the idea that we can have it our way. But what if choice is more limited than we like to think? What are the implications for us as individuals and as a society if we were to discover we have less free will than we realize? In this provocative book, Kent Greenfield poses unsettling questions about the choices we make, tapping into scholarship on topics ranging from brain science to economics, political theory to sociology. His discoveries, told through an entertaining array of news events, personal anecdotes, crime stories, and legal decisions, confirm that many factors, conscious and unconscious, limit our free will. Worse, by failing to perceive them we leave ourselves open to manipulation. In The Myth of Choice, Kent Greenfield uses scores of real-life stories to explore the modern fixation on choice and our confused responses to it, but also offers useful suggestions to help us become better decision makers as individuals.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Kent Greenfield is professor of law and law fund research scholar, Boston College. He has lectured at the London School of Economics as well as at leading universities in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Santiago, Montreal, and Vancouver.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Biteback Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2012
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1849543070
• ISBN 13: 9781849543071
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 320
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible