free will

A collection of 184 posts

Biblical Exegesis

The Exodus Debunked: Hardening of Hearts

The Exodus is a story that is hugely important to Christians (and Jews), as can be seen by some comments by Christians on the previous articles in this series. I want to continue my claims that the Exodus never happened because of both historical issues and theological/philosophical ones by

bible

Free Will or Predestination? Let the Bible Guide You...

Here are a number of quotes from the Bible that certainly muddy the waters in terms of advocating for free will. A few comments are interspersed (from my friend Julian) in between these quotes: God chose us “before the foundations of the world were laid” (Eph.1:4a) “according to

determinism

Free Will as an Abstract Construct

I am a conceptual nominalist so that when it comes to abstract ideas, I see them as constructed by the mind(s). In this way, humans create (using language, maths and so on) a map of reality as a way of interpreting real properties of the world around them. As

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve, and Failing the First Free Will Test

I have posted a number of times on the Genesis account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. One commenter on one of the posts reminded me of my favourite meme: And this is nowhere more apparent than with the eating the fruit of the Tree of the

determinism

Free Will Talk in Winchester on Thursday

These and other crucial questions are investigated with a deft touch and uses recent and important scientific findings to support the thesis supplying a valuable overview to the subject. I am giving my talk on Free Will in Winchester, UK on Thursday night at the lovely Discovery Centre for the

determinism

The Causes of Human Behavior - Good and Bad

A friend of mine recently sent this to me; I thought it would be good for stimulus, summing up some of Robert Sapolsky's writing. I would love to find time to read Behave - it sounds a tour de force.The Causes of Human Behavior -- Good and

determinism

A Free Will Challenge for Christians!

This advert was placed in the Free Inquiry by a friend of mine. What do you think? I would love for Christians to properly engage with this argument. WELL MEDITATED HATE IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT FREE WILL AND SOME ATHEISTS ARE COMPLICIT   What makes possible, and actually legitimates, the malignant hatred

extremism

Free Will / Islam Talks in Fareham & Bristol in Next 2 Weeks

If you are local to myself, in the Fareham and Gosport area of Hampshire, please come along next Wednesday (19th) to my free will talk. The Facebook event page is here. The week after that, on July 26th, I'll be talking to the Bristol Skeptics Society on Islam

crime

Free Will Skepticism and Criminal Behavior: Caruso's Public Health-Quarantine Model

I am reposting this because it has come up in conversations about free will recently and is thus pertinent again: The great Gregg Caruso has produced a fascinating looking paper which I can't wait to read. I have often advocated the quarantine method in crime and punishment. This

determinism

Reactive Attitudes: the Psychology of Free Will

On the thread to the post on whether or not moral responsibility exists in light of the falsity of libertarian free will, the idea of the ingrained psychology of free will came up. I thought I would expand on some ideas. Philosopher PF Strawson, father of philosopher Galen Strawson, was

determinism

With a Lack of Free Will, Do We Still Have Moral Responsibility?

The term "moral responsibility" is an interesting one in the context of moral philosophy and free will and determinism. The question is often raised as to whether we can have moral responsibility given a single path through life. If we do not have libertarian free will (the real

causality

Free Will: “We are influenced, but not determined” – the 80-20% approach invalidated

I was having a conversation by email the other day concerning free will, and I was reminded of this I wrote some time back. It is as a result of one of the most common (and I would argue rather naive) defences of libertarian free will that I hear. So

crime

Quarantine Approach to Crime and Punishment

As a determinist who believes that libertarian free will is an illusion, the argument over whether we have libertarian free will or not is somewhat passé. The interesting debates happen over whether we have moral responsibility or not, what any ramifications of this would be, and what approaches we should

free will

The Benefits of Dispelling the Myth of Libertarian Free Will

I'd be interested in generating some conversation in the comments here. Let's imagine the truth of the myth of libertarian free will, for the sake of argument (though I have outlined this many times in a lot of my writing). What do you think the advantages

determinism

God and his Free Will Problem.

I wrote a short piece on God's free will and the issues it can cause with defining himself, and even ideas like the inability for him to commit suicide. Check it out. I threatened a second piece. Here it is (actually a repost from ages ago). Here is

determinism

God: Can He Choose His Own Qualities? Can He Commit Suicide?

The idea of libertarian free will is a contentious one, but let's assume, for the sake of argument, that it exists, because that is the general position of most theists. There is a prevailing idea that if things are great, then they are great-making properties. If they are

determinism

Some Questions Concerning Free Will

On a post I wrote about free will illusionism recently, there was a latecomer (Jan Luszczek) to the conversation who posed some questions that I would like to look at here, and throw some out for you to answer, and to get the discussion going. English is not his native

determinism

Free Will Illusionism

One approach to the growing evidence, and immutable logical philosophy, for the fact of (adequate) determinism and free will as an illusion of the mind is that of the illusionist. This position states that libertarian free will (as the ability to chose otherwise in any given situation) is indeed an

brain

Brain tests predict children's futures

This is a recent report from the BBC, detailing work carried out in New Zealand. It really builds on work presented in a superb book that I urge everyone to read, called The Anatomy of Violence by Adrian Raine, which documents the bio-social jigsaw that is the causal circumstance out

determinism

Free Will and the University of the Third Age

I had the absolute pleasure yesterday of presenting on free will at one of my local secondary schools, in their community hub, to the University of the Third Age. My opening talk was then followed by Dr Lorenzo Stafford, a psychology lecturer from the University of Portsmouth, and then Professor

free will

Free Will Does Not Logically Necessitate Evil

The Free Will Theodicy is a defensive tactic used by apologists to at least partly rebut the problem of Evil issue: why is there so much suffering in the world given an OmniGod? The theodicy states that the corollary of giving humans the wonderful gift of free will is that

determinism

The Explanatory Scope of Free Will

So I have a question. I will detail the following research. For (libertarian) ‘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? The second question would be “What

determinism

There’s No Such Thing as Free Will, But we’re better off believing in it anyway.

This is the title of a recent article, by Stephen Cave, in the Atlantic that is worth reading. Let me lay out its basic premises and see if you agree. If you have read any of my books or this blog for very long, you would know that I am

Biology

On freely loving your mother...

Further to my comments to a fellow Tippling Philosopher, I emailed this a few years back: 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. Another

Biblical Exegesis

Pharaoh and the Hardening of Hearts

I want to now talk about the intervening God, and how God can force people’s hands. It seems to me that Christians quite often have their cakes, and then eat them too! How greedy (though I often wonder what the point of having a cake is, if not to