Derk Pereboom

Derk Pereboom (born February 6, 1957) is a Dutch-born American philosopher, currently serving as the Susan Linn Sage Professor in Philosophy and Ethics at Cornell University. His academic career began at the University of Vermont, where he held positions from assistant professor to full professor between 1985 and 2007. He then moved to Cornell University in 2007. Pereboom's primary areas of specialization include free will, moral responsibility, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and the work of Immanuel Kant. He is particularly known for his position in the free will debate, termed 'hard incompatibilism,' which posits that due to fundamental facts about the universe, humans lack the metaphysical free will necessary for deep moral responsibility. Despite this, Pereboom argues that forward-looking aspects of blaming and praising, aimed at improving character and relationships, remain valuable and compatible with this lack of free will. His philosophical work also delves into the philosophy of mind, addressing the hard problem of consciousness with a physicalist approach that considers both introspective representation and Russellian monism. He defends a version of nonreductive physicalism, suggesting that mental states are not identical to lower-level states but are materially constituted. Pereboom has authored several influential books, including "Living Without Free Will" (2001), "Consciousness and the Prospects of Physicalism" (2011), and "Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life" (2014), and co-edited volumes such as "Four Views on Free Will" (2007). He also contributes to scholarly resources like the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.