Is Science Compatible With Free Will

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Is Science Compatible with Free Will?

Author : Antoine Suarez
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461452120
Total Pages : 477 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (614 download)

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Book Synopsis Is Science Compatible with Free Will? by : Antoine Suarez

Download or read book Is Science Compatible with Free Will? written by Antoine Suarez and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-22 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anyone who claims the right ‘to choose how to live their life’ excludes any purely deterministic description of their brain in terms of genes, chemicals or environmental influences. For example, when an author of a text expresses his thoughts, he assumes that, in typing the text, he governs the firing of the neurons in his brain and the movement of his fingers through the exercise of his own free will: what he writes is not completely pre-determined at the beginning of the universe. Yet in the field of neuroscience today, determinism dominates. There is a conflict between the daily life conviction that a human being has free will, and deterministic neuroscience. When faced with this conflict two alternative positions are possible: Either human freedom is an illusion, or deterministic neuroscience is not the last word on the brain and will eventually be superseded by a neuroscience that admits processes not completely determined by the past. This book investigates whether it is possible to have a science in which there is room for human freedom. The book generally concludes that the world and the brain are governed to some extent by non-material agencies, and limited consciousness does not abolish free will and responsibility. The authors present perspectives coming from different disciplines (Neuroscience, Quantumphysics and Philosophy) and range from those focusing on the scientific background, to those highlighting rather more a philosophical analysis. However, all chapters share a common characteristic: they take current scientific observations and data as a basis from which to draw philosophical implications. It is these features that make this volume unique, an exceptional interdisciplinary approach combining scientific strength and philosophical profundity. We are convinced that it will strongly stimulate the debate and contribute to new insights in the mind-brain relationship.

Why Free Will Is Real

Author : Christian List
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674239814
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Free Will Is Real by : Christian List

Download or read book Why Free Will Is Real written by Christian List and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-06 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A crystal-clear, scientifically rigorous argument for the existence of free will, challenging what many scientists and scientifically minded philosophers believe. Philosophers have argued about the nature and the very existence of free will for centuries. Today, many scientists and scientifically minded commentators are skeptical that it exists, especially when it is understood to require the ability to choose between alternative possibilities. If the laws of physics govern everything that happens, they argue, then how can our choices be free? Believers in free will must be misled by habit, sentiment, or religious doctrine. Why Free Will Is Real defies scientific orthodoxy and presents a bold new defense of free will in the same naturalistic terms that are usually deployed against it. Unlike those who defend free will by giving up the idea that it requires alternative possibilities to choose from, Christian List retains this idea as central, resisting the tendency to defend free will by watering it down. He concedes that free will and its prerequisites—intentional agency, alternative possibilities, and causal control over our actions—cannot be found among the fundamental physical features of the natural world. But, he argues, that’s not where we should be looking. Free will is a “higher-level” phenomenon found at the level of psychology. It is like other phenomena that emerge from physical processes but are autonomous from them and not best understood in fundamental physical terms—like an ecosystem or the economy. When we discover it in its proper context, acknowledging that free will is real is not just scientifically respectable; it is indispensable for explaining our world.

Free Will Explained

Author : Dan Barker
Publisher : Union Square & Co.
ISBN 13 : 1454927364
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (549 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will Explained by : Dan Barker

Download or read book Free Will Explained written by Dan Barker and published by Union Square & Co.. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling essay on free will from an internationally recognized authority on atheism, and author of God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction. Do we have free will? And if we don’t, why do we feel as if we do? In a godless universe governed by impersonal laws of cause and effect, are you responsible for your actions? Former evangelical minister Dan Barker (God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction) unveils a novel solution to the question that has baffled scientists and philosophers for millennia. He outlines the concept of what he calls “harmonic free will,” a two-dimensional perspective that pivots the paradox on its axis to show that there is no single answer—both sides are right. Free will is a useful illusion: not a scientific, but a social truth.

Free Will

Author : Meghan Griffith
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0415562198
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (155 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Meghan Griffith

Download or read book Free Will written by Meghan Griffith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of whether humans are free to make their own decisions has long been debated and it continues to be a controversial topic today. In Free Will: The Basics readers are provided with a clear and accessible introduction to this central but challenging philosophical problem. The questions which are discussed include: Does free will exist? Or is it illusory? Can we be free even if everything is determined by a chain of causes? If our actions are not determined, does this mean they are just random or a matter of luck? In order to have the kind of freedom required for moral responsibility, must we have alternatives? What can recent developments in science tell us about the existence of free will? Because these questions are discussed without prejudicing one view over others and all technical terminology is clearly explained, this book is an ideal introduction to free will for the uninitiated.

Free Will

Author : Sam Harris
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451683405
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Sam Harris

Download or read book Free Will written by Sam Harris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sam Harris, bestselling author of THE END OF FAITH takes on one of today's liveliest issues: whether or not we actually have free will.

Free Will and Modern Science

Author : Richard Swinburne
Publisher : OUP/British Academy
ISBN 13 : 9780197264898
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will and Modern Science by : Richard Swinburne

Download or read book Free Will and Modern Science written by Richard Swinburne and published by OUP/British Academy. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do humans have the kind of free will which makes them morally responsible for their actions? Essays by distinguished scientists and philosophers investigate whether neuroscience, Quantum theory or mathematics show that human behaviour is or is not fully determined by prior brain states.

Free

Author : Alfred R. Mele
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199371628
Total Pages : 113 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Free by : Alfred R. Mele

Download or read book Free written by Alfred R. Mele and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Scientists have forged a penetrating, coherent course in the study of human thought and action. Yet some of the same scientists have slashed out an adjacent, rough-hewn path, cutting at the roots of the belief in free will and at the groundwork of relationships among the conscious will, the mind, and the brain. Claiming to disprove the existence of free will is not only wrongheaded, Mele argues, but harmful; research shows that people who don't believe they are free are more likely to behave badly, as they sink into feeling like they aren't responsible for their actions. Putting a positive spin on this, Mele conveys what he calls the 'good news' that we are freer than we think. If we see ourselves as morally responsible for our future actions, we can begin to view ourselves as having abilities and capacities that give us considerable control over what we do. Mele takes apart the findings of neuroscience and psychology experiments often cited as irrefutably disproving the existence of free will, for example those of Benjamin Libet, and demonstrates that their results have been misinterpreted. Mele explains why the experimental findings are actually consistent with our making many of our decisions consciously and with our having considerable control over many of our decisions and actions. In order to find truth and clarity on this crucial topic, Mele argues, philosophers, scientists, and psychologists alike need to explore one another's work rather than relying on scientific findings - and a rigid interpretation of those findings- as the only key to solving the complex puzzle that is free will"--

Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will

Author : William R. Klemm
Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 9780128051535
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (515 download)

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Book Synopsis Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will by : William R. Klemm

Download or read book Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will written by William R. Klemm and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will makes a series of arguments that certain human behaviors are impossible to explain in the absence of free will, and that free will emerges from materialistic processes of brain function. It outlines future directions for neuroscience studies that can harness emerging technologies and tools for systems-level analysis. All humans have the sensation that they consciously will certain things to happen and that, in the absence of external constraints, they are free to choose from among alternatives. This notion of free will is deemed obvious by the average person based on common experience. Free will is frequently defended with arguments stemming from social, legal, philosophical, and religious perspectives. But these arguments appeal to consequences-not causes-of choices and decisions. In the past 3 decades, debate has raged within the scientific community over whether free will is in fact an illusion. Because free will would require conscious agency, the supporting corollary is that consciousness itself cannot do anything and is merely an observer rather than an actor.

How Physics Makes Us Free

Author : J. T. Ismael
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190269456
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis How Physics Makes Us Free by : J. T. Ismael

Download or read book How Physics Makes Us Free written by J. T. Ismael and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-03 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1687 Isaac Newton ushered in a new scientific era in which laws of nature could be used to predict the movements of matter with almost perfect precision. Newton's physics also posed a profound challenge to our self-understanding, however, for the very same laws that keep airplanes in the air and rivers flowing downhill tell us that it is in principle possible to predict what each of us will do every second of our entire lives, given the early conditions of the universe. Can it really be that even while you toss and turn late at night in the throes of an important decision and it seems like the scales of fate hang in the balance, that your decision is a foregone conclusion? Can it really be that everything you have done and everything you ever will do is determined by facts that were in place long before you were born? This problem is one of the staples of philosophical discussion. It is discussed by everyone from freshman in their first philosophy class, to theoretical physicists in bars after conferences. And yet there is no topic that remains more unsettling, and less well understood. If you want to get behind the façade, past the bare statement of determinism, and really try to understand what physics is telling us in its own terms, read this book. The problem of free will raises all kinds of questions. What does it mean to make a decision, and what does it mean to say that our actions are determined? What are laws of nature? What are causes? What sorts of things are we, when viewed through the lenses of physics, and how do we fit into the natural order? Ismael provides a deeply informed account of what physics tells us about ourselves. The result is a vision that is abstract, alien, illuminating, and-Ismael argues-affirmative of most of what we all believe about our own freedom. Written in a jargon-free style, How Physics Makes Us Free provides an accessible and innovative take on a central question of human existence.

Free Will

Author : Mark Balaguer
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262525798
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Mark Balaguer

Download or read book Free Will written by Mark Balaguer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-02-14 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A philosopher considers whether the scientific and philosophical arguments against free will are reason enough to give up our belief in it. In our daily life, it really seems as though we have free will, that what we do from moment to moment is determined by conscious decisions that we freely make. You get up from the couch, you go for a walk, you eat chocolate ice cream. It seems that we're in control of actions like these; if we are, then we have free will. But in recent years, some have argued that free will is an illusion. The neuroscientist (and best-selling author) Sam Harris and the late Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner, for example, claim that certain scientific findings disprove free will. In this engaging and accessible volume in the Essential Knowledge series, the philosopher Mark Balaguer examines the various arguments and experiments that have been cited to support the claim that human beings don't have free will. He finds them to be overstated and misguided. Balaguer discusses determinism, the view that every physical event is predetermined, or completely caused by prior events. He describes several philosophical and scientific arguments against free will, including one based on Benjamin Libet's famous neuroscientific experiments, which allegedly show that our conscious decisions are caused by neural events that occur before we choose. He considers various religious and philosophical views, including the philosophical pro-free-will view known as compatibilism. Balaguer concludes that the anti-free-will arguments put forward by philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists simply don't work. They don't provide any good reason to doubt the existence of free will. But, he cautions, this doesn't necessarily mean that we have free will. The question of whether we have free will remains an open one; we simply don't know enough about the brain to answer it definitively.

Determined

Author : Robert M. Sapolsky
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 052556098X
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis Determined by : Robert M. Sapolsky

Download or read book Determined written by Robert M. Sapolsky and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant New York Times bestseller “Excellent…Outstanding for its breadth of research, the liveliness of the writing, and the depth of humanity it conveys.” – Wall Street Journal One of our great behavioral scientists, the bestselling author of Behave, plumbs the depths of the science and philosophy of decision-making to mount a devastating case against free will, an argument with profound consequences Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: We may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at the base of human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do. Determined offers a marvelous synthesis of what we know about how consciousness works—the tight weave between reason and emotion and between stimulus and response in the moment and over a life. One by one, Sapolsky tackles all the major arguments for free will and takes them out, cutting a path through the thickets of chaos and complexity science and quantum physics, as well as touching ground on some of the wilder shores of philosophy. He shows us that the history of medicine is in no small part the history of learning that fewer and fewer things are somebody’s “fault”; for example, for centuries we thought seizures were a sign of demonic possession. Yet, as he acknowledges, it’s very hard, and at times impossible, to uncouple from our zeal to judge others and to judge ourselves. Sapolsky applies the new understanding of life beyond free will to some of our most essential questions around punishment, morality, and living well together. By the end, Sapolsky argues that while living our daily lives recognizing that we have no free will is going to be monumentally difficult, doing so is not going to result in anarchy, pointlessness, and existential malaise. Instead, it will make for a much more humane world.

The Science of Freedom

Author : Michael Abraham
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781983991035
Total Pages : 590 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Science of Freedom by : Michael Abraham

Download or read book The Science of Freedom written by Michael Abraham and published by . This book was released on 2018-01-31 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So how can we know if human beings really have free will? The question of whether or not we have free will (libertarianism) has accompanied us since the beginning of philosophy and history. In recent years, the issue has started to move from philosophy into the field of science, especially neuroscience. This book shows that scientific findings do not decisively demonstrate the correctness of any answer, and that the question is still a philosophical one. It begins by defining the relevant terms, primarily free will and determinism, showing that incautious definitions lead to quite a few errors in the discussion of these issues. For answers, check with philosophers and thinkers! Examining the issue of free will from various angles, in clear, accessible language for the educated reader, it offers a consistent and systematic basis for a libertarian approach that is in accordance with scientific findings, showing that it arises naturally from considerations of common sense and various philosophical aspects. Scroll up now to get your copy of The Science of Freedom!

The Routledge Companion to Free Will

Author : Kevin Timpe
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317635477
Total Pages : 730 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Companion to Free Will by : Kevin Timpe

Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Free Will written by Kevin Timpe and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-11-18 with total page 730 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questions concerning free will are intertwined with issues in almost every area of philosophy, from metaphysics to philosophy of mind to moral philosophy, and are also informed by work in different areas of science (principally physics, neuroscience and social psychology). Free will is also a perennial concern of serious thinkers in theology and in non-western traditions. Because free will can be approached from so many different perspectives and has implications for so many debates, a comprehensive survey needs to encompass an enormous range of approaches. This book is the first to draw together leading experts on every aspect of free will, from those who are central to the current philosophical debates, to non-western perspectives, to scientific contributions and to those who know the rich history of the subject. Its 61 chapters, commissioned especially for this volume from the world’s leading researchers, are framed by a General Introduction and briefer introductions for each of the six sections. A list of References, an annotated Suggested Reading list, and a short list of Related Topics are included at the end of each chapter.

Free

Author : Alfred R. Mele
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199371644
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Free by : Alfred R. Mele

Download or read book Free written by Alfred R. Mele and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does free will exist? The question has fueled heated debates spanning from philosophy to psychology and religion. The answer has major implications, and the stakes are high. To put it in the simple terms that have come to dominate these debates, if we are free to make our own decisions, we are accountable for what we do, and if we aren't free, we're off the hook. There are neuroscientists who claim that our decisions are made unconsciously and are therefore outside of our control and social psychologists who argue that myriad imperceptible factors influence even our minor decisions to the extent that there is no room for free will. According to philosopher Alfred R. Mele, what they point to as hard and fast evidence that free will cannot exist actually leaves much room for doubt. If we look more closely at the major experiments that free will deniers cite, we can see large gaps where the light of possibility shines through. In Free: Why Science Hasn't Disproved Free Will, Mele lays out his opponents' experiments simply and clearly, and proceeds to debunk their supposed findings, one by one, explaining how the experiments don't provide the solid evidence for which they have been touted. There is powerful evidence that conscious decisions play an important role in our lives, and knowledge about situational influences can allow people to respond to those influences rationally rather than with blind obedience. Mele also explores the meaning and ramifications of free will. What, exactly, does it mean to have free will -- is it a state of our soul, or an undefinable openness to alternative decisions? Is it something natural and practical that is closely tied to moral responsibility? Since evidence suggests that denying the existence of free will actually encourages bad behavior, we have a duty to give it a fair chance.

Free Will

Author : Sam Harris
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451683472
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Sam Harris

Download or read book Free Will written by Sam Harris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion. A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion. In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.

Four Views on Free Will

Author : John Martin Fischer
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1405182040
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Four Views on Free Will by : John Martin Fischer

Download or read book Four Views on Free Will written by John Martin Fischer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-02-04 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the concepts and interactions of free will, moralresponsibility, and determinism, this text represents the mostup-to-date account of the four major positions in the free willdebate. Four serious and well-known philosophers explore the opposingviewpoints of libertarianism, compatibilism, hard incompatibilism,and revisionism The first half of the book contains each philosopher’sexplanation of his particular view; the second half allows them todirectly respond to each other’s arguments, in a lively andengaging conversation Offers the reader a one of a kind, interactive discussion Forms part of the acclaimed Great Debates in Philosophyseries

Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem

Author : Mark Balaguer
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262266156
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem by : Mark Balaguer

Download or read book Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem written by Mark Balaguer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-01-13 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that the problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In this largely antimetaphysical treatment of free will and determinism, Mark Balaguer argues that the philosophical problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In the course of his argument, Balaguer provides a naturalistic defense of the libertarian view of free will. The metaphysical component of the problem of free will, Balaguer argues, essentially boils down to the question of whether humans possess libertarian free will. Furthermore, he argues that, contrary to the traditional wisdom, the libertarian question reduces to a question about indeterminacy—in particular, to a straightforward empirical question about whether certain neural events in our heads are causally undetermined in a certain specific way; in other words, Balaguer argues that the right kind of indeterminacy would bring with it all of the other requirements for libertarian free will. Finally, he argues that because there is no good evidence as to whether or not the relevant neural events are undetermined in the way that's required, the question of whether human beings possess libertarian free will is a wide-open empirical question.