Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will

Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will PDF Author: David Hodgson
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199845301
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
The author examines the idea of free will, arguing that consideration of human rationality and consciousness together gives us free will.

Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will

Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will PDF Author: David Hodgson
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199845301
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
The author examines the idea of free will, arguing that consideration of human rationality and consciousness together gives us free will.

Rationality + Consciousness

Rationality + Consciousness PDF Author: David H. Hodgson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780199932269
Category : Free will and determinism
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Taking a fresh approach to the question of free will, David Hodgson contends that close consideration of human rationality and human consciousness shows that together they give us free will, in a robust and indeterministic sense, and in a way that is consistent with what science tells us about the world.

Freedom and Neurobiology

Freedom and Neurobiology PDF Author: John R. Searle
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231137524
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
"In the second half of the book, Searle applies his theory of social reality to the problem of political power, explaining the role of language in the formation of our political reality. The institutional structures that organize, empower, and regulate our lives - money, property, marriage, government - consist in the assignment and collective acceptance of certain statuses to objects and people. Whether it is the president of the United States, a twenty-dollar bill, or private property, these entities perform functions as determined by their status in our institutional reality. Searle focuses on the political powers that exist within these systems of status functions and the way in which language constitutes them."--BOOK JACKET.

Rationality, Control, and Freedom

Rationality, Control, and Freedom PDF Author: Curran F. Douglass
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611478383
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
The subject of this book is the controversy—one of the oldest in philosophy—about whether it is possible to have freedom in the face of universal causal determinism. Of course, it is crucial to consider what such freedom might mean—in particular, there is an important distinction between libertarian “free will” and the more naturalistic view of freedom taken by compatibilists. This book provides background for laypersons through a historical survey of earlier views and some discussion and criticism of various contemporary views. In particular, it states and discusses the Consequence Argument, the most important argument challenging human freedom in recent literature. The main feature of the book is the argument for a solution: one that is within the compatibilist tradition, is naturalistic and in accord with findings of science and principles of engineering control theory. Some particular features of the offered solution include an argument for a close tie between freedom and control—where what is meant is the voluntary motion control of our bodies, and this “control” is understood naturalistically, by which the author means in accordance with concepts of engineering control theory and modern science. Such concepts are used to explain and demarcate the concept of “control” being used. Then it develops a working conception of what rationality is (since what is crucial is freedom in choice, and rationality is crucial to that), by reviewing texts on the subject by three expert authors (namely, Nathanson, Nozick, and Searle). It is argued that rationality is a species of biological learning control that involves deliberation; and that our freedom in choice is greatest when our choices are most rational.

The Illusion of Conscious Will

The Illusion of Conscious Will PDF Author: Daniel M. Wegner
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262290553
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 725

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Book Description
A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.

Rationality in Action

Rationality in Action PDF Author: John R. Searle
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262250610
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
The study of rationality and practical reason, or rationality in action, has been central to Western intellectual culture. In this invigorating book, John Searle lays out six claims of what he calls the Classical Model of rationality and shows why they are false. He then presents an alternative theory of the role of rationality in thought and action. A central point of Searle's theory is that only irrational actions are directly caused by beliefs and desires—for example, the actions of a person in the grip of an obsession or addiction. In most cases of rational action, there is a gap between the motivating desire and the actual decision making. The traditional name for this gap is "freedom of the will." According to Searle, all rational activity presupposes free will. For rationality is possible only where one has a choice among various rational as well as irrational options. Unlike many philosophical tracts, Rationality in Action invites the reader to apply the author's ideas to everyday life. Searle shows, for example, that contrary to the traditional philosophical view, weakness of will is very common. He also points out the absurdity of the claim that rational decision making always starts from a consistent set of desires. Rational decision making, he argues, is often about choosing between conflicting reasons for action. In fact, humans are distinguished by their ability to be rationally motivated by desire-independent reasons for action. Extending his theory of rationality to the self, Searle shows how rational deliberation presupposes an irreducible notion of the self. He also reveals the idea of free will to be essentially a thesis of how the brain works.

A Plain Person's Free Will

A Plain Person's Free Will PDF Author: David Hodgson
Publisher: Journal of Consciousness Studi
ISBN: 9781845400279
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In this special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies David Hodgson defends a simple, robust account of the plain person's position on free will, and intends it to support equally robust views of personal responsibility for conduct.

Free Will and Consciousness

Free Will and Consciousness PDF Author: Roy Baumeister
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199741352
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
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.

Free Will and Luck

Free Will and Luck PDF Author: Alfred R. Mele
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195374398
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Aiming to help readers think more clearly about free will, Mele identifies the conceptual obstacles to justified belief in the existence of free will. He also attempts to clarify the central issue in the philosophical debate about free will & moral responsibility, & criticizes various influential contemporary theories about free will.

Surrounding Free Will

Surrounding Free Will PDF Author: Alfred R. Mele
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199333955
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
This cutting-edge volume showcases work supported by a four-year, 4.4 million dollar project on free will and science. In fourteen new articles and an introduction, contributors explore the subject of free will from the perspectives of neuroscience; social, cognitive, and developmental psychology; and philosophy (both traditional and experimental).