Surrounding Free Will

Description

"This volume showcases cutting-edge scholarship from The Big Questions in Free Will project, funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and directed by Alfred R. Mele. It explores the subject of free will from the perspectives of neuroscience; social, cognitive, and developmental psychology; and philosophy (both traditional and experimental). The volume consists of fourteen new articles and an introduction from top-ranked contributors, all of whom bring fresh perspectives to the question of free will. They investigate questions such as: How do children conceive of free will and how does their concept of free will develop? How does lowered or raised confidence in the existence of free will affect our behavior? What modifies our power to resist temptation? What do lay folk mean by free will? What brain processes underlie decisions? How does the conscious experience of voluntary action contribute to the neural control of behavior? What are the neural differences between deliberate choosing and arbitrary picking? How do neuroscientific studies of decision making in monkeys bear on human free will? Is determinism compatible with free will? What can a proper understanding of causation tell us about free will? What is moral responsibility? Readers interested in the current and future direction of scholarship on free will find this volume essential reading"-- "The Big Questions in Free Will project was created by a five million dollar grant by the Templeton Foundation and is directed by the philosopher Alfred R. Mele. The goal of the project is to study the topic of free will from a variety of promising interdisciplinary angles, including but not limited to philosophy (traditional and experimental), neuroscience; and social, cognitive, and developmental psychology. The contents and structure of this volume reflect this agenda; it is the first volume to emerge from this new enterprise. Topics covered include children's concept of free will; the brain processes underlying decisions; the conscious experience of voluntary action and the neural control of behavior; the causal roles of conscious processes; and fresh philosophical perspectives on free will"--

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