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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Determinism & Free Will: An Exploration On Gender Identity As Evidence For Compatibilism, Daniel Mangandi-Escobar
Determinism & Free Will: An Exploration On Gender Identity As Evidence For Compatibilism, Daniel Mangandi-Escobar
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Determinism is a philosophical concept asserting that every event and action in the universe has been determined by previous causes, which has caused considerable debate within philosophy. Two critical issues within this discussion are the implications of determinism for human agency and moral responsibility. In this work, I argue that free ill is possible, rejecting hard determinism. Specifically, I will be arguing in favor of compatibilism, which is the view that free will can exist even within a deterministic world. From this perspective, free will is not opposed to determinism. Instead, our choices and actions can still be considered free …
Determinism And The Problem Of Individual Freedom In Li Zehou’S Thought, Andrew Lambert
Determinism And The Problem Of Individual Freedom In Li Zehou’S Thought, Andrew Lambert
Publications and Research
Li Zehou’s work can be understood as an account of a Chinese modernity, a vision for Chinese society that seeks to integrate three distinct philosophical approaches. These are Chinese history and culture, which Li understands as largely Confucian; Marxism, which has exerted such influence on a modernizing China; and Western learning more generally, as expressed by figures such as Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud. Li also frequently expresses the hope that a Chinese modernity will be one in which the importance of the individual is recognized, and rights and freedoms upheld (e.g., 2006, p. 182). But this stance raises an …
A Suspicion About Determinism, John Thorp
A Suspicion About Determinism, John Thorp
Philosophy Presentations
This presentation reflects on the fact that the idea of determinism, or fatalism, keeps recurring, in very different contexts, at different times: logical fatalism, theological fatalism, physical determinism, etc. Standing back and looking at this big picture, it voices the suspicion that all these different determinist theses are manifestations of a single, deeper, conceptual trouble.
Can Neuroscientific Studies Be Of Personal Value?, Andrew Mullins
Can Neuroscientific Studies Be Of Personal Value?, Andrew Mullins
Philosophy Papers and Journal Articles
This essay reflects on the ability of neuroscientific data to be of personal value and to enrich our lives by offering insight into our capacities for self management and choice. The theory of cognitive dualism proposed by Roger Scruton seeks to preserve rationality and allow for freedom of will, but he appears reluctant to engage with the data accruing in neural studies. I contrast this approach with a Thomistic hylomorphic approach to the philosophy of mind that is founded on participation in being. It offers the potential to draw on neurobiological knowledge for insights into rationality, motivation, and eudaimonia. …
The Curse Of Fortune; Responding To Luck Objections In An Uncooperative World, Kyle Morgan
The Curse Of Fortune; Responding To Luck Objections In An Uncooperative World, Kyle Morgan
Featured Research
The consensus scientific view holds that our world is indeterministic at the micro level, but practically deterministic at all other levels. In an indeterministic world, live alternative possibilities at the moment of decision render it impossible for agents to guarantee what they will choose; regardless of their personality and deliberative processes. Critics of indeterminist free will argue that this lack of a necessary connection between mental state and choice makes the ultimate decision fundamentally a matter of luck. As such, indeterminism opens free will up to potential problems of present luck. Additionally, large-scale determinism opens up free will to a …
Review Of Nature's Challenge To Free Will By Bernard Berofsky, William Simkulet
Review Of Nature's Challenge To Free Will By Bernard Berofsky, William Simkulet
Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Punishing Without Free Will, Luis E. Chiesa
Punishing Without Free Will, Luis E. Chiesa
Journal Articles
Most observers agree that free will is central to our practices of blaming and punishment. Yet the conventional conception of free will is under sustained attack by the so-called determinists. Determinists claim that all of the events that take place in the universe – including human acts – are the product of causally determined forces over which we have no control. If human conduct is really determined by factors that we cannot control, how can our acts be the product of our own unfettered free will and what would that mean for the criminal law? The overwhelming majority of legal …
The Non-Problem Of Free Will In Forensic Psychiatry And Psychology, Stephen J. Morse
The Non-Problem Of Free Will In Forensic Psychiatry And Psychology, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This article demonstrates that there is no free will problem in forensic psychiatry by showing that free will or its lack is not a criterion for any legal doctrine and it is not an underlying general foundation for legal responsibility doctrines and practices. There is a genuine metaphysical free will problem, but the article explains why it is not relevant to forensic practice. Forensic practitioners are urged to avoid all usage of free will in their forensic thinking and work product because it is irrelevant and spawns confusion.
Sartre's View Of Kierkegaard As Transhistorical Man, Antony Aumann
Sartre's View Of Kierkegaard As Transhistorical Man, Antony Aumann
Faculty Works
This paper illuminates the central arguments in Sartre's UNESCO address, 'The Singular Universal." The address begins by asking whether objective facts tell us everything there is to know about Kierkegaard. Sartre's answer is negative. The question then arises as to whether we can lay hold of Kierkegaard's "irreducible subjectivity" by seeing him as alive for us today, i.e., as transhistorical. Sartre's answer here is affirmative. However, a close inspection of this answer exposes a deeper level to the address. The struggle to find a place for Kierkegaard within the world of objective knowledge is an allegory. It mirrors Sartre's struggle …
Aristotle And Chrysippus On The Physiology Of Human Action, Priscilla Sakezles
Aristotle And Chrysippus On The Physiology Of Human Action, Priscilla Sakezles
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
The early Stoics do not seem to have physiological theories about the workings of the human body. This is not surprising in light of Chrysippus' admission, reported by Galen, of his ignorance of anatomy. Yet a physiological theory explaining the mechanics of how the body moves in response to the soul's desires can be reconstructed from a handful of neglected fragments. Interestingly, the revealed theory is nearly identical to Aristotle's explanation in On the Motion of Animals of "how the soul moves the body in voluntary motion" (700bl0 and 703b3). In this paper I reconstruct the Stoic theory, and argue …