free will

A collection of 184 posts

abstracts

Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #11 - Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?

Having posted the Philpapers survey results, the biggest ever survey of philosophers conducted in 2009, several readers were not aware of it (the reason for re-communicating it) and were unsure as to what some of the questions meant. I offered to do a series on them, so here it is

Aquinas

Feser and Free Will - Characters in a Story

I am presently editing a book by Gunther Laird, who has a keen interest in critiquing Thomism and Edward Feser's defence thereof. The book has a working title of The Unnecessary Science, and is solid and hefty refutation of the core tenets and claims of Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy as

Epistemology

Not Seeing OmniGod through Philosophy and Logic: Omniscience & Free Will

Introductory spiel: One of my more recent books, Not Seeing God: Atheism in the 21st Century (UK), has a plethora of gems in it for the reader and a smorgasbord of variety. It was a labour of love and was particularly rewarding due to the fact that so many great

creation

God's Divine Foreknowledge, His Culpability and the Problem of Evil

God’s divine foreknowledge has recently raised its interesting head over the last few comment threads and I thought it would be interesting to return to the subject again. I’ll start with a quote from a commenter here, found on their Miscellanea Agnostica blog: The [reconciliation of "the

determinism

Free Will: Have We Outgrown It or Is It Still a Useful Illusion?

I was having a conversation on Facebook about this so I thought I'd bring it here, setting the scene in this first post. Let's assume that libertarian free will is not true. I have written a lot on this over the past 10 years such that

compatibilism

Why Free Will is Real: Response to Harris, Coyne, and Other Determinists - Dr. Christian List

This is a pretty good conversation between Michael Shermer and Dr Christian List of the LSE. https://youtu.be/9yxHA_gv7vc List sets out three conditions for his version of free will, which he argues humans ( and others to differing degrees have): 1. Intentional agency 2. Alternative possibilities between which

Consciousness

Cheating & Heroism: Automaticity vs Free Will

In this article, I am going to talk about praiseworthiness and blameworthiness with regard to terrorism and is something a little bit opposite to that idea, cheating. It is part of our human nature, or as PF Strawson says, our reactive attitudes, that we praise heroes to the hilt and

determinism

What Would Be Your Last Question?

Here is a sample from thinkers from the edge.com, asked by John Brockman: John Brockman, Editor of Edge, each year asks scores of notable scientists and other intellectuals one very challenging question. For 2018 he received 284 answers to: “What is the last question?” Most were about abstruse subjects.

determinism

There Are Only Two Gods Available, Really

I was recently having a rather abstract conversation with my good friend and Tippling Philosopher founder the other night. We were talking about the different kinds of gods that logic could get you to. And I came to the conclusion that really, there were only two types of gods available:

determinism

Dan Barker's Free Will

Dan Barker's will Free Will Explained: How Science and Philosophy Converge to Create a Beautiful Illusion is a good read. These days, I love books that are short and easy to devour. This is certainly one of those books. Barker is essentially a free will illusionist who spends

determinism

Determinism and Moral Responsibility

Free will and determinism have been back on the blog menu over the last week or so. One commenter (Michael) asked me about morality/moral responsibility and determinism. I've written about this before and this piece is broadly taken from a previous blog article with a few additions.

determinism

Divine Foreknowledge and Free Will

So by knowing our actions, does God cause them to be? Depending on what you believe, yes and no, and here is the whole crux of the argument about whether we have free will or not in a religious context. There are a few ways in which it is claimed

determinism

Why the Free Will Argument Is More Important than the God Argument

As many of you know, I have a great interest in the free will debate, more specifically, the libertarian free will debate. I deny that an agent can really rationally and consciously choose to do otherwise in identical situations. What this means is that ever agent (you and I) will

determinism

Responding to Comments on Free Will/Determinism: Different Outcomes, Same Inputs.

I recently wrote an article that talked about how any research that finds a category of people are more likely to do some behaviour than the non-category (and this covers an awful lot of psychology, sociology and, well, scientific research and data) is necessarily negating libertarian free will. I would

determinism

How Any Behavioural Research Findings Negate Free Will

This is something that I've said many times in many places but I have never explicitly written it up in a blog post. Today, I am going to return to one of my favourite topics: libertarian free will (LFW). Data is a funny thing. Science seeks to understand

determinism

Determinism, Naturalism, God and Meaning

I recently posted a piece about knowledge and meaning and is regular Christian commenter posted this, with my original words in italics: I would far rather take the time and effort to analyse and evaluate life and existence to create my own meaning rather than have to receive someone else’

determinism

What Does Free Even Mean?

The "free" in free will is often called into question, and for good reason. Thinkers like Daniel Dennett have often said that (libertarian) free will needs determinism in order to make any sense, and I would certainly agree with this. One blog commenter questioned the other day as

compatibilism

Having a Pop at Modern Compatibilist Atheists

A friend of mine is presently running an “ad” in the Free Enquiry magazine. There are a few ideas I would like to look at here, and I will do so in two posts; this is the second post after looking at "Christian free will" here. The questions

change

Change and Determinism

I was reminded recently of the notion of change in the paradigm of determinism. We often talk, even hard determinists, in terms of "change": If you changed this and that variable in this child's life, then it would change their outcome so as to bring out

free will

Christianity: The Enemy of Reason and Sympathy?

My friend, Fellow Feather, has a penchant for taking out adverts in different publications as a form of direct mail action to address the issues that are close to his heart. Here is one of his latest numbers. See what you think about his direct approach and content. He, like

determinism

Free Will, Responsibility, Politics and Everything Else

I recently posted on Raoul Martinez and his book Creating Freedom, as well as a TED talk that went with it. My friend sent me this email on what he thinks is a tremendous book, picking out some really pertinent parts, and listing the endorsements. Given time, it would certainly

determinism

Moral Responsibility and Free Will

Check out this TEDx talk from Raoul Martinez on the subject of free will, causal determinism and moral responsibility. I agree with everything therein. I have talked about brain tumours and moral responsibility here: Whitman, tumours, the neurotypical and moral responsibility Some good implicit reference to John Loftus' excellent

determinism

Libertarian Free Will and the 80-20 Problem

One of the most common defences of Libertarian Free Will (or contra-causal free will) is what I sometimes term the 80-20% approach. Most people, to some degree or another, accept that our lives are at least somewhat, and in most cases, a good deal influenced. This may be by genetic,

free will

Maths Homework, Heaven, and the Problem of Evil

Here is a comment on a recent thread on the problem of evil: >>>>The idea that math homework must cause suffering to be effective - per this concept, finding a way for all children to enjoy math homework would render it ineffective. Um, that would be

Consciousness

Brain Scans Predicting Social Bonds

This was a fascinating article from the New York Times that looks at the predictive power of brain scans. New research suggests the roots of friendship extend even deeper than previously suspected. Scientists have found that the brains of close friends respond in remarkably similar ways as they view a