Free Will S Value

Author : Laura W. Ekstrom
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2021-02-23
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780197556436

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God, Suffering, and the Value of Free Will by Laura W. Ekstrom Pdf

For many of us, the question of whether or not God exists is one of the most perplexing and profound questions of our lives, and numerous philosophers and theologians have debated it for centuries. Laura Ekstrom here takes a new look at the issue of God's existence by examining it against the reality of human suffering, bringing to the fore contentious presuppositions concerning agency and value at the core of the matter. When we survey the world, we observe an enormous amount of pain, including virtually unspeakable kinds of maltreatment and agony, many instances of which seem patently unfair, unearned, and pointless. This book argues that, in light of these observations, it is reasonable to conclude that God does not exist. The book unravels the extent and power of arguments from evil. Ekstrom provides a close investigation of a largely overlooked claim at the heart of major free-will-based responses to such arguments, namely that free will is worth it: sufficiently valuable to serve as the good that provides a God-justifying reason for permitting evil in the world. Through fresh examinations of traditional theodicies, Ekstrom develops an alternative line called divine intimacy theodicy, and makes an extended case for rejecting skeptical theism. The book takes up an argument from evil concerning a traditional doctrine of hell, which reveals a number of compelling issues concerning fault, agency, and blameworthiness. In response to recent work contending that the problem of evil is toothless because God is indifferent to human beings, Ekstrom defends the essential perfect moral goodness of God. She further tackles the question of whether or not it is possible to live a religious life as an agnostic or as an atheist. Through rigorous reflection, with deep respect for religious thought and experience, and with sensitivity to the range and kinds of suffering so many endure, Ekstrom firmly advances discussion of the problem of evil and paves the way for further scholarship in the philosophy of religion.

Author : Sam Harris
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 96 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2012-03-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781451683400

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Free Will by Sam Harris Pdf

Sam Harris, bestselling author of THE END OF FAITH takes on one of today's liveliest issues: whether or not we actually have free will.

Author : John Lemos
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2023-04-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781000874167

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Free Will’s Value by John Lemos Pdf

This book defends an event-causal theory of libertarian free will and argues that the belief in such free will plays an important, if not essential, role in supporting certain important values. In the first part of the book, the author argues that possession of libertarian free will is necessary for deserved praise and blame and reward and punishment. He contends that his version of libertarian free will – the indeterministic weightings view – is coherent and can fit with a scientific, naturalistic understanding of human nature. However, the author also notes that we don’t have sufficient evidentiary grounds to believe that human beings have this kind of free will. Despite this, he argues there are sufficiently strong value-based/axiological reasons to believe we have such free will and to live and act as if we have it. In the second part of the book, the author makes the case that the belief in such libertarian, desert-grounding free will is very important to defending human dignity in the context of criminal justice, making sense of justified pride and its value, and adding value to our relationships. Free Will’s Value will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, action theory, ethics, and the philosophy of law.

Author : Garrett Pendergraft
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2022-07-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781000605358

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Free Will and Human Agency: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments by Garrett Pendergraft Pdf

In this new kind of entrée to contemporary discussions of free will and human agency, Garrett Pendergraft collects and illuminates 50 of the most relevant puzzles, paradoxes, and thought experiments. Assuming no familiarity with the philosophical literature on free will, each chapter describes a case, explains the questions that it raises, briefly summarizes some of the key responses to the case, and provides a list of suggested readings. Every chapter is accessible, succinct, and self-contained. The puzzles are divided into five broad categories: the threat from fatalism, the threat from determinism, practical reason, social dimensions, and moral luck. Entries cover topics such as the grandfather paradox, theological fatalism, the consequence argument, manipulation arguments, luck arguments, weakness of will, action explanation, addiction, blame and punishment, situationism in moral psychology, and Huckleberry Finn. Free Will and Human Agency is an effective and engaging teaching tool as well as a handy resource for anyone interested in exploring the questions that have made human agency a topic of perennial philosophical interest. Key Features: Though concise overall, offers broad coverage of the key areas of free will and human agency. Describes each imaginative case directly and in a memorable way, making the cases accessible and easy to remember. Provides a list of suggested readings for each case.

Author : Paul Russell,Oisin Deery
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2013-02-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199875849

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The Philosophy of Free Will by Paul Russell,Oisin Deery Pdf

The problem of free will is one of the great perennial issues of philosophy and has been discussed and debated over many centuries. The issues that arise in this sphere cover both metaphysics and morals and concern matters of central importance not only for philosophy but also for law, theology, psychology and the social sciences. What is at stake here is nothing less than our self-image as responsible moral agents who are in control of our own destiny and fate. The investigations and findings of modern science are judged by many to put skeptical pressure on this self-image and may challenge its credibility. During the past few decades the free will controversy has developed and evolved in exciting and significant ways. All the major parties involved in this debate have had to revise and amend their core positions with a view to responding to the sophisticated and searching arguments put forward by their critics and opponents. The papers collected in this volume represent the most essential and indispensable contributions to the contemporary debate. The specific topics covered include: moral luck, skepticism and naturalism, the consequence argument, alternate possibilities, libertarian metaphysics, compatibilism and reason-responsive theories, illusionism and revisionism, optimism and pessimism, and the phenomenology of agency, as well as contributions relating to neuroscience and experimental philosophy. The collection is arranged in a way that presents the topics covered in a structured and organized manner. The general aim is to provide an effective guide for students and readers who are new to the field, as well as a useful collection for those who are already familiar with the topics and contributions. The contributors include many of the leading and most distinguished figures in the field, along with a number of younger scholars who have already had an impact and produced significant work.

Author : Alfred R. Mele
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2006-03-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780198041511

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Free Will and Luck by Alfred R. Mele Pdf

Mele's ultimate purpose in this book is to help readers think more clearly about free will. He identifies and makes vivid the most important conceptual obstacles to justified belief in the existence of free will and meets them head on. Mele clarifies the central issues in the philosophical debate about free will and moral responsibility, criticizes various influential contemporary theories about free will, and develops two overlapping conceptions of free will--one for readers who are convinced that free will is incompatible with determinism (incompatibilists), and the other for readers who are convinced of the opposite (compatibilists). Luck poses problems for all believers in free will, and Mele offers novel solutions to those problems--one for incompatibilist believers in free will and the other for compatibilists. An early chapter of this empirically well-informed book clearly explains influential neuroscientific studies of free will and debunks some extravagant interpretations of the data. Other featured topics include abilities and alternative possibilities, control and decision-making, the bearing of manipulation on free will, and the development of human infants into free agents. Mele's theory offers an original perspective on an important problem and will garner the attention of anyone interested in the debate on free will.

Author : Jamshid Farshidi
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2015-03-31
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781503544598

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Free Will and Constraint by Jamshid Farshidi Pdf

Free will is an essential problem in human knowledge that investigates the relationships between all creatures, including human beings, with each other, nature, and ecosystem. The immense impacts of free will on science, law, and ethics and, as a result, on everyday life of humans are undeniable. This is the reason behind almost two centuries of intense research by well-known researchers on this historic problem in the Western world. This book, based on a constructive modeling of the problem, provides its solution and analyzes its applications in science, law, and ethics.

Author : Robert Kane
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 1985-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 088706101X

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Free Will and Values by Robert Kane Pdf

A philosophical analysis of free will and the relativity of values.

Author : Filip Grgić,Davor Pećnjak
Publisher : Springer
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2018-11-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783319992952

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Free Will & Action by Filip Grgić,Davor Pećnjak Pdf

This book consists of eleven new essays that provide new insights into classical and contemporary issues surrounding free will and human agency. They investigate topics such as the nature of practical knowledge and its role in intentional action; mental content and explanations of action; recent arguments for libertarianism; the situationist challenge to free will; freedom and a theory of narrative configuration; the moral responsibility of the psychopath; and free will and the indeterminism of quantum mechanics. Also tackling some historical precursors of contemporary debates, taken together these essays demonstrate the need for an approach that recognizes the multifaceted nature of free will. This book provides essential reading for anyone interested in the current scholarship on free will.

Author : Mathew Iredale
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2014-10-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781317547648

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The Problem of Free Will by Mathew Iredale Pdf

Do we really have freedom to act, or are we slaves to our genes, environment or culture? Regular TPM columnist Mathew Iredale gets to grips with one of the most intractable issues in philosophy: the problem of free will. Iredale explores what it is about the free will problem that makes it so hard to resolve and argues that the only acceptable solution to the free will problem must be one that is consistent with what science tells us about the world. It is here, maintains Iredale, that too many works on free will, introductory or otherwise, fall down, by focusing only on how free will relates to determinism. Iredale shows that there are clear areas of scientific research which are directly and significantly relevant to free will in a way that does not involve determinism. Although these areas of scientific research do not allow us to solve the problem, they do allow us to separate the more plausible ideas concerning free will from the less plausible.

Author : Derk Pereboom
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2014-01-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191022623

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Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life by Derk Pereboom Pdf

Derk Pereboom articulates and defends an original conception of moral responsibility. He argues that if determinism were true we would not be morally responsible in the key basic-desert sense at issue in the free will debate, but that we would also lack this kind of moral responsibility if indeterminism were true and the causes of our actions were exclusively states or events. It is possible that if we were undetermined agent causes—if we as substances had the power to cause decisions without being causally determined to cause them—we would have this kind of free will. But although our being undetermined agent causes has not been ruled out as a coherent possibility, it's not credible given our best physical theories. Pereboom then contends that a conception of life without the free will required for moral responsibility in the basic-desert sense would nevertheless allow for a different, forward-looking conception of moral responsibility. He also argues that our lacking this sort of free will would not jeopardize our sense of ourselves as agents capable of rational deliberation, that it is compatible with adequate measures for dealing with crime and other threatening behavior, and that it allows for a robust sense of achievement and meaning in life. Pereboom's arguments for this position are reconfigured relative to those presented in Living without Free Will (2001), important objections to these arguments are answered, and the development of the positive view is significantly embellished.

Author : Roger E. Backhouse,Antoinette Baujard,Tamotsu Nishizawa
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2021-03-25
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781108841450

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Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values by Roger E. Backhouse,Antoinette Baujard,Tamotsu Nishizawa Pdf

This volume revisits the history of welfare economics, showing that economists have regularly drawn on ethical values for practical issues.

Author : Creighton Peden,Larry E. Axel
Publisher : Mercer University Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0865543607

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God, Values, and Empiricism by Creighton Peden,Larry E. Axel Pdf

Author : Carolina Sartorio
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 197 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2016-03-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191063770

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Causation and Free Will by Carolina Sartorio Pdf

Carolina Sartorio argues that only the actual causes of our behaviour matter to our freedom. Although this simple view of freedom clashes with most theories of responsibility, including the most prominent 'actual sequence' theories currently on offer, Sartorio argues for its truth. The key, she claims, lies in a correct understanding of the role played by causation in a view of that kind. Causation has some important features that make it a responsibility-grounding relation, and this to the success of the view. Also, when agents act freely, the actual causes are richer than they appear to be at first sight; in particular, they reflect the agents' sensitivity to reasons, where this includes both the existence of actual reasons and the absence of other (counterfactual) reasons. So acting freely requires more causes and quite complex causes, as opposed to fewer causes and simpler causes, and is compatible with those causes being deterministic. The book connects two different debates, the one on causation and the one on the problem of free will, in new and illuminating ways.

Author : Tony Wilkinson
Publisher : Andrews UK Limited
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015-07-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781845408350

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Capitalism and Human Values by Tony Wilkinson Pdf

Capitalism is not enough. It has brought us prosperity and no other economic system can match its energy and innovation, but it has a dark side of exploitation and instability. Capitalism needs to be bounded by values. But which values? What indeed are values anyway and how do we locate and share values strong enough to balance the power of capitalism in society? Relativism has swept away old certainties and we struggle to agree what should lie at the centre of our lives. In this book we construct a foundation for values based on our common humanity and explore personal, social and political values from a fresh perspective. We show how with values placed on a strong foundation individual lives can reacquire meaning and purpose. Politics can be transformed from the half-corrupted subject of popular indifference it has become. Above all, capitalism can be a tool for good, a servant rather than a master.