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Andrew Latham

Title: Free will and the challenge of cognitive neuroscience redux

Abstract: Many brain scientists believe that some of the evidence from their field of research poses a challenge for our free will. The purpose of this talk is to present what I believe to be the strongest challenge against the existence of (some accounts of) free will from the brain sciences. I will develop this challenge over the course of three steps. To begin, I will present what I will call the broad challenge of the brain sciences. The broad challenge holds the evidence from the brain sciences shows some candidate free will mechanisms do not play the role we suppose they do in production of our actions. As a result, there is no free will in the world according our concept. Then, I will argue that the broad challenge is untenable, and will instead concentrate on the nearby narrow challenge of the brain sciences. The main difference between the narrow and broad challenge, is the narrow challenge allows that some candidate free will mechanisms do play the role we suppose they do in a few instances. Finally, I will reframe the narrow challenge of the brain sciences into what I call the discrepancy puzzle. The discrepancy puzzle highlights an apparent gap between the limited number of instances of free will in the brain sciences and number of instances of free will in the world as judged by the folk. This puzzle serves as major motivation for a new account of free will.

When
Thu Oct 26, 2017 4am – 5:30am Coordinated Universal Time
Where
The Muniment Room, University of Sydney (map)