A dialogue on free will and science / Alfred R. Mele.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mele, Alfred R., 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Free will and determinism--Miscellanea.

Free will and determinism.

Imaginary conversations.

Genre:

Trivia and miscellanea.

Physical Description:

x, 113 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2014]

Summary:

A Brief and Intriguing Dialogue Exploring Leading Scientific Challenges to Free Will, In A Dialogue on Free Will and Science, renowned philosopher Alfred Mele explores the experiments in neuroscience and psychology that have been said to pose the greatest challenges to free will. He uses an imagined dialogue among several characters to make what is typically a complex topic more accessible and engaging for students. Guided by the question "How much power do these scientific challenges have?" the characters first consider what having free will means and then react to well-known experiments that question its existence, including work by Libet and Milgram and the bystander, dime, and Stanford prison experiments. Their discussions show how useful philosophical methods can be in assessing and interpreting scientific findings, thereby revealing certain weaknesses in these scientific challenges. Ideal for courses in free will, introduction to philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science, A Dialogue on Free Will and Science encourages students to form their own opinions on the validity and strength of the major scientific challenges to free will. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Monday Afternoon 1

What does "free will" mean?

Three answers: regular, mid-grade, and premium

2 Monday Night 10

Regular free will

Determinism

Frankfurt-style stories

The zygote argument

Moral responsibility

3 Tuesday Afternoon 19

Mid-gradefree will

Deep openness

Moral responsibility again

Luck

Premium free will

A survey

4 Tuesday Night 28

Libet's neuroscience experiments

5 Wednesday Afternoon 39

An fMRI experiment

Buridan's ass

A depth electrode experiment

Consciousness at work

Ramachandran's thought experiment

6 Wednesday Night 50

Gazzaniga on free will

Nylon stocking experiment

Dime experiment

Bystander experiment

Good Samaritan experiment

7 Thursday Afternoon 60

Milgram's experiments and free will

Bystander experiment and free will

Dime experiment and free will

Stanford prison experiment and free will

8 Thursday Night 71

Wegner on free will

Implementation intentions and consciousness in action

9 Friday Afternoon 81

Scientific evidence and regular free will

Scientific evidence and mid-grade free will

10 Friday Night 92

Scientific evidence and premium free will

Souls

Agent causation

Regular and mid-grade free will again.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 103-106) and index.

ISBN:

9780199329298

019932929X

OCLC:

850909237