free will

A collection of 184 posts

determinism

Our brains judge a face's trustworthiness, even when we can’t see it

This fascinating article is from ScienceDaily. It is something I have talked about before with friends, that you can tell so much about a person (or at least think you can) from a cursory look to the face. And, indeed, your brain is doing n awful lot of this non-conscious computation along those lin

determinism

Sensitive? Emotional? Empathetic? It could be in your genes

Do you jump to help the less fortunate, cry during sad movie scenes, or tweet and post the latest topics and photos that excite or move you? If yes, you may be among the 20 percent of our population that is genetically pre-disposed to empathy, according to Stony Brook University psychologists Arthur

determinism

Bob Doyle's 'two-stage' model of free will

The Information Philosopher, Bob Doyle, who has also written a book called The Scandal of Free Will has proposed a two-stage model of free will based on the thinking of William James. I bring this up because previous and infamous ATP commenter, JohnM (John Muze) has been commenting on the Unbelievab

causality

Have I killed someone?

Causality. It is a funny thing. Or not so funny. A few years back, I took my class, as a teacher, on a class trip to the Historic Dockyard in the naval city of Portsmouth, UK. My school is some 45 minutes walk and a short ferry ride from there. With the cost of coaches, it is important to be able

free will

The correlation of belief in free will and paranormal beliefs

This is really interesting, and whilst it doesn't prove anything particularly in and of itself, it does hint at a connection between more 'out there' irrational beliefs and free will, which, in my opinion, is equally irrational.

conservative

Machine Predicts If You're Liberal or Conservative - More Evidence for Determinism

This article in Mother Jones builds on work which I, myself, talked about in my book Free Will? It is certainly the case that we can predict political leanings using disgust sensitivity. As I state in my book (p. 153-4):

determinism

God cannot act contrary to his own predictions and cannot know that he knows everything

I am reposting this one again because it came up in a comment by Shatterface here. This was a segment I did for the Skepticule podcast which I also recorded as a video. Check it out!

Featured ATP

God cannot have free will

This has come up recently in conversation so I thought I would post this video I did some time back. [youtube]http://youtu.be/6eY6iz38v9k[/youtube]

determinism

Christianity and Homosexuality Part 2

So now it is time to return to the idea of homosexuality and Christianity about which I posted the other day. Having looked at biblical issues concerning the position of deeming h/s morally wrong, let us now look at what makes people h/s and whether it is fair for an all-loving god to judge them.

determinism

I am speaking (on free will) at the Brighton Fringe Festival

Brighton Fringe is the largest arts festival in England and one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. It sets out to stimulate, educate and entertain a wide audience by providing a showcase for diverse art forms. Everyone can take part, in fact, whilst enjoying a friendly and supportive envi

compatibilism

Dennett, Harris and Free Will

Daniel Dennett has finally responded (it has been long-awaited) to Sam Harris's short treatise Free Will. The review can be found at the Center for Naturalism, here. I am going to look at what Dennett says, and what Harris's idea of free will is compared to Dennett. Essentially, whilst there is lots

counter-apologetics

Free Will, the Problem of Evil and Heaven and Christian commenters

I don't know why, but Christians seem to be posting a few comments just now on some old videos of mine. The comments irritate me because they are not so well thought out. This 'sombodysdad' in particular... People seem to think they are all that and

determinism

Some rare philosophical poetry! (yes, I did it on free will...)

A fellow Tippling Philosopher with whom I am having a long and protracted debate on free will sent me a poem he wrote on where we were at a bout a month ago on free will. He styles himself as a linguist and humanities man, quite explicitly, and this was true to form. I thought it would be amusing to

Featured ATP

Another Tippling Philosopher defends free will... Part 1

There has been a new member of the Tippling Philosophers group to which I attend and I have been involved in some long disputes over the existence or not of free will. This is why my posts have recently been top heavy on the subject. This was the piece he

causality

Explanatory scope of free will

So I have a question. I will detail the following research. For ‘free will’ to be true, it has to explain the following. Or more accurately, the following has to be fully explicable within the free will hypothesis. How does it do that?

Buddhism

Guest Post by Fiona Cooke - "Left or Right? Questioning the 'I'."

The Tippling Philosophers group that I frequent has a collection of very differing viewpoints, from reductionist style physicalism to Christianity; agnosticism to various degrees of spiritualism. Fiona, who is posting here, has had an interesting journey. She has had, and continues to have, experien

determinism

Nature trumps nurture in exam success: GCSE results 'mainly determined by genes,' says landmark study of twins

Genetics has a more powerful influence on pupils' GCSE exam results than teachers, schools or family environment, according to a new study published tonight. Researchers from King's College London found that genetic differences account for 58 per cent of the differences between pupils' GCSE exam

determinism

Sci Phi Show on free will and foreknowledge

I am just about to listen to this but have not yet. H/T Skepticule podcast for this! Let me know what you think. It is the Sci Phi Show with a short episode Foreknowledge, Free Will and Cassandra. Here are the details of the show: On this episode of

determinism

Gene Mutation for Excessive Alcohol Drinking Found

Researchers have discovered a gene that regulates alcohol consumption and when faulty can cause excessive drinking. They have also identified the mechanism underlying this phenomenon.

determinism

A Syllogism for Determinism

I would like to put together a logical syllogism which really expresses the denial of free will through the denial of the Principle of Alternative Possibilities. The idea is that the ability to choose otherwise is rendered incoherent by lacking fundamental grounding reasoning since all deliberation

free will

Why Parenting Can Never Have a Rule Book: Children's Genetics Significantly Affect How They Are Parented

This is a fascinating article which will feed in to a post I will write about my own twins, and the power of genetics over behaviour, with its necessary mitigation of free will. From Science Daily:

determinism

Do you love your mother? Freely?

Another thing I wanted to add was the idea that the mental, the experiential, supervenes on the physical. This means that the physical in some way defines and is necessary for the mental. This is becoming more and more evident. Let me exemplify: How much do you love your mother?

determinism

Thoughts on free will

A new Tippling Philosopher has recently joined our group and come to the last few meetings. I was discussing free will with him in the pub, and he seemed to fail to understand how the Principle of Alternative Possibilities worked, and how the incoherence of free will seems insurmountable. Here is th

determinism

Dilbert does (the illusion of) free will

Dilbert doing philosophy. Good stuff! Particularly the last one!

determinism

Psychology, neuroscience and a fundamental lack of free will

I am presently reading an absolutely superb book by David Eagleman called Incognito: The book is a popular foray into psychology and neuroscience and synthesises a host of different studies into things brain. I wanted to just bring up a few fascinating studies which cast doubt upon the idea t