Reading Group
6:30pm – 8:00pm, September 1, 8, & 15
All undergraduate and graduate students are warmly welcome.
9/1: Timothy O’Connor, “Conscious Willing and the Emerging Sciences of Brain and Behavior,” focus on the introduction and the cases at 175-6, and replies at 178-79, 181-2
9/8: Harry Frankfurt, “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person”
9/15: Aquinas on freedom, selections from the Summa Theologica
Are You Free?
Freedom is central for our moral lives. Through it we choose what kind of person we want to be; because of it–so it seems–we are responsible for our actions. However, thinkers both historical and contemporary have raised important challenges to this notion. We’ll begin by looking at some influential studies that claim to prove that free will is an illusion, and how philosophers skeptical of that conclusion have responded to such challenges. Next, we’ll explore a classic account offered by Harry Frankfurt for how we might make sense of freedom if the natural world–including us–is, for all intents and purposes, deterministic. Finally, we’ll look at arguments offered by Aquinas in favor of free will as traditionally understood: on his account, the world is not deterministic and there is a substantive sense in which things really are up to us.
Led by Dr. Victor Saenz
Email office@houstoninstitute.org for more information.
