III: FREE WILL vs. DETERMINISM
Whether the editor of your text should have included a chapter on the philosophical problem of free will and determinism is open to debate. The argument that is often presented is that freedom of choice is a necessary assumption if one is to hold someone morally responsible for their actions (the notion of legal responsibility makes a similar assumption). That the agent could have done otherwise, that there were options to one's choice, that one indeed has choices is a necessary presupposition of moral choices. Freedom and determinism as a philosophic area of inquiry can stand by itself. But it itself may also be the topic of a philosophy course or part of an introductory course in philosophy as it was in the one that I taught here at the college. There are enough areas to be concerned with if one is a beginning student in ethics or moral choices. Should a beginning student have to cope with an important philosophic assumption underlying moral responsibility? Maybe.