[PDF] Exploring The Illusion Of Free Will And Moral Responsibility eBook

Author : Gregg D. Caruso
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 335 pages
File Size : 50,25 MB
Release : 2013-07-05
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 073917732X

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Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility investigates the philosophical and scientific arguments for free will skepticism and their implications. Skepticism about free will and moral responsibility has been on the rise in recent years. In fact, a significant number of philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists now either doubt or outright deny the existence of free will and/or moral responsibility—and the list of prominent skeptics appears to grow by the day. Given the profound importance that the concepts of free will and moral responsibility hold in our lives—in understanding ourselves, society, and the law—it is important that we explore what is behind this new wave of skepticism. It is also important that we explore the potential consequences of skepticism for ourselves and society. Edited by Gregg D. Caruso, this collection of new essays brings together an internationally recognized line-up of contributors, most of whom hold skeptical positions of some sort, to display and explore the leading arguments for free will skepticism and to debate their implications.

Author : Gregg D. Caruso
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 13,93 MB
Release : 2013
Category : Ethics
ISBN : 9780739177310

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Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility is an edited collection of new essays by an internationally recognized line-up of contributors. It is aimed at readers who wish to explore the philosophical and scientific arguments for free will skepticism and their implications.

Author : Gregg D. Caruso
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 36,68 MB
Release : 2012
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0739171364

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In recent decades, with advances in the behavioral, cognitive, and neurosciences, the idea that patterns of human behavior may ultimately be due to factors beyond our conscious control has increasingly gained traction and renewed interest in the age-old problem of free will. In this book, Gregg D. Caruso examines both the traditional philosophical problems long associated with the question of free will, such as the relationship between determinism and free will, as well as recent experimental and theoretical work directly related to consciousness and human agency. He argues that our best scientific theories indeed have the consequence that factors beyond our control produce all of the actions we perform and that because of this we do not possess the kind of free will required for genuine or ultimate responsibility. It is further argued that the strong and pervasive belief in free will, which the author considers an illusion, can be accounted for through a careful analysis of our phenomenology and a proper theoretical understanding of consciousness. Indeed, the primary goal of this book is to argue that our subjective feeling of freedom, as reflected in the first-person phenomenology of agentive experience, is an illusion created by certain aspects of our consciousness.

Author : Christian List
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 24,2 MB
Release : 2019-05-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0674239814

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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.

Author : Sam Harris
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 96 pages
File Size : 47,30 MB
Release : 2012-03-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1451683405

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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.

Author : Saul Smilansky
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 25,1 MB
Release : 2000-03-30
Category :
ISBN : 019158813X

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Saul Smilansky presents an original treatment of the problem of free will, which lies at the heart of morality and human self-understanding. He maintains that we have most of the resources we need for a proper understanding of the problem; and the key to it is the role played by illusion. The major traditional philosophical approaches are inadequate, Smilansky argues: their partial insights need to be integrated into a hybrid view, which he calls Fundamental Dualism. Common views about justice, responsibility, human worth, and related notions are radically misguided, and the absurd looms large. We do, however, find some justification for enlightened moral views, and grounding for some of our most cherished views of human nature. The bold and perhaps disturbing claim of Free Will and Illusion is that we could not live adequately with a complete awareness of the truth about human freedom: illusion lies at the centre of the human condition. The necessity of illusion is seen to follow from the basic elements of the free will issue, helping keep our moral and psychological worlds intact. Smilansky offers the challenge of recognizing the centrality of illusion and trying to free ourselves to some extent from it; this is not only a philosophical challenge, but a moral and psychological one as well.

Author : Derk Pereboom
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 24,77 MB
Release : 2006-11-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521029961

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Argues that morality, meaning and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible for our actions.

Author : Roy Baumeister
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 25,29 MB
Release : 2010-07-09
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0199741352

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This volume is aimed at readers who wish to move beyond debates about the existence of free will and the efficacy of consciousness and closer to appreciating how free will and consciousness might operate. It draws from philosophy and psychology, the two fields that have grappled most fundamentally with these issues. In this wide-ranging volume, the contributors explore such issues as how free will is connected to rational choice, planning, and self-control; roles for consciousness in decision making; the nature and power of conscious deciding; connections among free will, consciousness, and quantum mechanics; why free will and consciousness might have evolved; how consciousness develops in individuals; the experience of free will; effects on behavior of the belief that free will is an illusion; and connections between free will and moral responsibility in lay thinking. Collectively, these state-of-the-art chapters by accomplished psychologists and philosophers provide a glimpse into the future of research on free will and consciousness.

Author : Daniel Zaborowski
Publisher : Daniel Zaborowski
Page : 62 pages
File Size : 36,91 MB
Release :
Category : Philosophy
ISBN :

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"The Illusion of Free Will: Philosophical and Scientific Considerations" is a comprehensive exploration of the concept of free will from both philosophical and scientific perspectives. The book is organized into 8 parts, each with at least 4 subsections, covering topics such as the historical debate on free will, the role of neuroscience and genetics in shaping behavior, the illusion of conscious will, the evolutionary origins of free will, moral responsibility, personal identity, consciousness, and the practical implications of the illusion of free will for society. The book challenges the commonly held belief that individuals possess free will and the ability to make conscious decisions. Instead, it argues that our sense of control over our decisions is an illusion, shaped by cognitive biases and environmental factors. The authors explore different theories on determinism and indeterminism, as well as compatibilism and incompatibilism, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the concept of free will. In addition to its philosophical inquiry, the book also examines the scientific basis of free will, including the role of genetics, neuroscience, and environmental factors in shaping behavior. It also explores the implications of the illusion of free will for personal identity and moral responsibility. Overall, "The Illusion of Free Will" is a thought-provoking and informative book that challenges our assumptions about the nature of free will and its impact on human behavior and society.

Author : Justin Caouette
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 10,52 MB
Release : 2013-10-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1443853232

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Determinism is, roughly, the thesis that facts about the past and the laws of nature entail all truths. A venerable, age-old dilemma concerning responsibility distils to this: if either determinism is true or it is not true, we lack “responsibility-grounding” control. Either determinism is true or it is not true. So, we lack responsibility-grounding control. Deprived of such control, no one is ever morally responsible for anything. A number of the freshly-minted essays in this collection address aspects of this dilemma. Responding to the horn that determinism undermines the freedom that responsibility (or moral obligation) requires, the freedom to do otherwise, some papers in this collection debate the merits of Frankfurt-style examples that purport to show that one can be responsible despite lacking alternatives. Responding to the horn that indeterminism implies luck or randomness, other papers discuss the strengths or shortcomings of libertarian free will or control. Also included in this collection are essays on the freedom requirements of moral obligation, forgiveness and free will, a “desert-free” conception of free will, and vicarious legal and moral responsibility. The authors of the essays in this volume are philosophers who have made significant contributions to debates in free will, moral responsibility, moral obligation, the reactive attitudes, philosophy of action, and philosophical psychology, and include John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, Michael McKenna, Alfred Mele, and Derk Pereboom.