We Are Not Always Tellers of Stories: On Things That Bother Me: Death, Freedom, the Self, Etc., by Galen Strawson

Abstract

G alen Strawson is best known for his work on free will, particularly the “basic argument,” in which he demonstrates four steps that render free will impossible. Things That Bother Me is a rattle-bag of philosophical essays—many of which have been published before in different formats, or delivered as lectures— that have been edited and tied up into one collection. In it Strawson addresses free will, the future after death, moral responsibility, and the fallacy of the narrative sense of self. He also, intriguingly, eschews the idea that physical science might one day deliver a final explanation of consciousness (and he does this en route to arguing for panpsychism). This might sound like the kind of publication that could sit glowering at you from your bookshelf until one morning, girded with a good night’s sleep and mug of black coffee, you feel brave enough to pit your mind against it. However, Strawson’s concision, wit, and often surprising openness might make you read through in one sitting to the final essay, a vivid and sensual autobiographical