Libertarian Free Will and the Scientific Worldview – Joana Rigato (CFCUL)

Libertarian Free Will and the Scientific Worldview

Joana Rigato

CFCUL

8thJuly| 15h30| Departamento de Filosofia

Abstract:

In the last few decades, several authors (e.g. Kane, Ekstrom) have defended libertarian theses (according to which free will requires alternative possibilities of action) against accusations of scientific implausibility. In order to do so, they endorsed physicalistic and reductionistic accounts, arguing for their compatibility with libertarian free will. In my presentation, I’ll counter that this sort of event-causal theses cannot guarantee the necessary authorship that an agent needs in order to control her actions. I’ll present the conditions of possibility that are necessary for libertarian free will, in my view, and I’ll try to show both that they’re not threatened by present science, and that their metaphysical weight is outbalanced by the advantage of their adequacy to the phenomenology of choice.

 

The talk will be given in portuguese or in english, according to the audience.