Free Will, Causality, and Neuroscience

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-37291-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 338, 184 Seiten, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 404 g

Reihe: Value Inquiry Book Series / Cognitive Science

Neuroscientists often consider free will to be an illusion. Contrary to this hypothesis, the contributions to this volume show that recent developments in neuroscience can also support the existence of free will. Firstly, the possibility of intentional consciousness is studied. Secondly, Libet’s experiments are discussed from this new perspective. Thirdly, the relationship between free will, causality and language is analyzed. This approach suggests that language grants the human brain a possibility to articulate a meaningful personal life. Therefore, human beings can escape strict biological determinism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Feltz, Bernard

Missal, Marcus

Sims, Andrew Cameron

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophie des Geistes, Neurophilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

The Authors

Introduction

Bernard Feltz, Marcus Missal and Andrew Sims

Part 1: Intention and Consciousness

1 Perceptual Decision-Making and Beyond: Intention as Mental Imagery

Andrew Sims and Marcus Missal

2 Dual-System Theory and the Role of Consciousness in Intentional Action

Markus Schlosser

3 When Do Robots Have Free Will? Exploring the Relationships between (Attributions of) Consciousness and Free Will

Eddy Nahmias, Corey Allen and Bradley Loveall

Part 2: Libet-Style Experiments

4 Free Will and Neuroscience: Decision Times and the Point of No Return

Alfred Mele

5 Why Libet-Style Experiments Cannot Refute All Forms of Libertarianism

László Bernáth

6 Actions and Intentions

Sofia Bonicalzi

Part 3: Causality and Free Will

7 The Mental, the Physical, and the Informational

Anna Drozdzewska

8 Free Will, Language, and the Causal Exclusion Problem

Bernard Feltz and Olivier Sartenaer

Index of Authors

Index of Concepts

Über Autor(innen)

Bernard Feltz, MD in Biology (1976) and PhD in Philosophy (1986), is Emeritus Professor at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He has published many articles and books on the philosophy of biology, including Self-Organization and Emergence in Life Sciences (Springer, 2006).

Marcus Missal is Professor of Neurosciences at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) where he obtained a PhD in Sciences in 1994. His area of interests are time perception in humans and animals, anticipation, and eye movements. He is an expert electrophysiologist and behavioral neuroscientist.

Andrew Sims obtained a PhD in Philosophy from Deakin University in 2015 with a dissertation on the explanation of psychological delusion after brain damage. He writes on topics in the philosophy of mind ranging from the psychogenic explanation of monomania to the explanation of social polarisation in terms of rational choice theory. His contribution to this book is linked to a post-doctoral stay at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium.