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

Greenfield, Kent

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300169507 ISBN 13: 9780300169508

Publisher: Yale Univ Pr, 2011

Synopsis

Americans are fixated on the idea of choice. Our political theory is based on the consent of the governed. Our legal system is built upon the argument that people freely make choices and bear responsibility for them. And what slogan could better express the heart of our consumer culture than "Have it your way"?

In this provocative book, Kent Greenfield poses unsettling questions about the choices we make. What if they are more constrained and limited than we like to think? If we have less free will than we realize, what are the implications for us as individuals and for our society? To uncover the answers, Greenfield taps 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. But Greenfield offers useful suggestions to help us become better decision makers as individuals, and to ensure that in our laws and public policy we acknowledge the complexity of choice.

About this title

Review:

Selected as a "Choice" Outstanding Academic Title for 2012 for Political Theory within the Social and Behavioral Sciences category.--Outstanding Academic Title"Choice" (05/24/2013)

Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2012 for Political Theory within the Social and Behavioral Sciences category.--Outstanding Academic Title"Choice" (05/24/2013)

About the Author:

Kent Greenfield is professor of law and law fund research scholar, Boston College. He is author of The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities and numerous scholarly law articles. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale Univ Pr
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0300169507
• ISBN 13: 9780300169508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244