1 option
Why are you free? : neurobiology and psychology of voluntary action / Boris Kotchoubey.
- Format:
- Book
- Series:
- Psychology Research Progress Neuroscience Research Progress
- Psychology research progress
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Free will and determinism.
- Liberty.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (197 p.)
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Nova Science Publishers, c2012.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- Everybody has a strong intuition that our voluntary actions are free, but where does this freedom come from? Most "libertarians", i.e., those who believe that our behavior is really free, argue from a philosophical, spiritual, social, or cultural background. The arguments do not look very convincing, because we know that we are not only social and spiritual beings, but also biological organisms steered by the brain. On the other hand, biologists and psychologists tend to deny the reality of freedom of our actions. They assert that these actions are causally determined by brain processes, and that the brain, for some unknown reason, creates an illusion of free will and voluntary intention. This book takes a completely different stance.
- Contents:
- Introduction
- Recent arguments against free will
- The so-called empirical evidence
- The a priori arguments
- Embodied freedom
- The foundations
- Movement
- Degrees of freedom
- Beyond the spatio-temporal limits
- Prolegomena
- Being in time
- Epilogue
- Index.
- Notes:
- Description based upon print version of record.
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [159]-175) and index.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 1-61942-548-3
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.