The History of the Free Will Problem
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Autonomy and Republicanism: Immanuel Kant's Philosophy of Freedom Author(S): Heiner Bielefeldt Source: Political Theory, Vol
Autonomy and Republicanism: Immanuel Kant's Philosophy of Freedom Author(s): Heiner Bielefeldt Source: Political Theory, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Aug., 1997), pp. 524-558 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/191892 Accessed: 25-05-2018 14:18 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/191892?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Political Theory This content downloaded from 81.157.207.121 on Fri, 25 May 2018 14:18:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms AUTONOMY AND REPUBLICANISM Immanuel Kant's Philosophy of Freedom HEINER BIELEFELDT University of Bielefeld INTRODUCTION: THE PARADOX OF LIBERALISM Since its origins in early modernity, liberalism has always been a hotly debated issue. A charge frequently brought forward is that liberalism mirrors a lack of ethical substance in modern society, a society which seemingly loses its inner normative cohesiveness and hence can be held together only by a set of abstract procedural rules. -
Philosophical Issues with Existence of God
Philosophical issues with existence of God www.rationalhumor.com R.N Session Schedule Session # Date / Time Session Name Brief Description 1 Jan 24th – Sunday General Concepts & History of Understand what are the various belief systems. 2:00pm to 4:00pm Philosophy Historical Review of how Philosophy evolved 2 Jan 31stth – Sunday General Philosophy an Introduction General Introduction into what is the branch of 2:00pm to 4:00pm Philosophy and then specifically review religious philosophy 3 Feb 7th – Sunday Philosophyof Religion How philosophyis handled and presented in the 2:00pm to 4:00pm various MAJOR religions – Abrahaministic & Eastern 4 Feb 14th – Sunday Logic & Logical Fallacies Understanding Logic and understanding how to 2:00pm to 4:00pm identify fallacies in arguments 5 Feb 21st – Sunday Arguments for the Existence of God Theological arguments; Ontological Arguments and 2:00pm to 4:00pm Teleological Arguments for the Existence of God 6 Feb 28th – Sunday Philosophical issues with existence of Philosophical issues with existence – Boeing 747 2:00pm to 4:00pm God Gambit; Russell’s TeaPot; Morality etc. 7 March 7th - Sunday Free Will and Theodicy Theproblem of Free Will with respect to 2:00pm to 4:00pm Omnipotence; Omniscience and Omni benevolence. Problem with Evil 8 March 14th – Sunday Putting it all together Summarizingkey concepts 2:00pm to 4:00pm www.rationalhumor.com R.N Background Information a) Free Will - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAqFbiBDb _c b) Eastern Religions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3w5ZUs7 ayI c) Belief - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pOI2YvV uuE Arguments against the existence of God Type Empirical Arguments • Inconsistent revelations from various faiths. -
And Peirce's Synechism
Elective Metaphysical Affi nities: Emerson’s “Natural History of Intellect” and Peirce’s Synechism Afi nidades Eletivas Metafísicas: A “História Natural do Intelecto” de Emerson e o Sinequismo de Peirce David A. Dilworth Philosophy Department State University of New York at Stony Brook – USA [email protected] Abstract: The paper suggests that Peirce’s late-phase metaphysical system af- termathed Emerson’s basic philosophical ideas elaborated over four decades before him. Peirce, with characteristic brilliance, transformed Emerson’s own luminous ideas into his categorial elaborations of abduction, cosmogonic synechism, universal semiosis, and the like. To illustrate this process of transformation, the paper provides a running synopsis of Emerson’s last signifi cant writing, “The Natural History of Intellect” (1870), which was ori- ginally part of a team-taught lecture series at Harvard that Emerson shared with six others, one of whom was the young C. S. Peirce. The synopsis evidences that virtually all of Peirce’s major metaphysical tenets had their precedent in Emerson. Among other places, Peirce acknowledged Emerson’s infl uence (together with that of Schelling) in his 1892 essay, “The Law of Mind.” Even before that, he referenced Emerson’s poem “The Sphinx” in his “A Guess at the Riddle” of 1887-88, the turning-point in Peirce’s career towarde metaphysical speculation. Peirce’s conscious awareness of Emerson’s philososphy and poetry traces back to many sources (including Emerson’s long friendship with his father, Benjamin Peirce). The elective affi nity be- tween his and Emerson’s views allows us to appreciate that the two authors forged a central strain of idealistic-cum-realistic metaphysical thinking that framed the later Pragmatisms of James and Dewey, among others. -
Reconciling Universal Salvation and Freedom of Choice in Origen of Alexandria
Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (1934 -) Projects Reconciling Universal Salvation and Freedom of Choice in Origen of Alexandria Lee W. Sytsma Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Sytsma, Lee W., "Reconciling Universal Salvation and Freedom of Choice in Origen of Alexandria" (2018). Dissertations (1934 -). 769. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/769 RECONCILING UNIVERSAL SALVATION AND FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA by Lee W. Sytsma, B.A., M.T.S. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2018 ABSTRACT RECONCILING UNIVERSAL SALVATION AND FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA Lee W. Sytsma, B.A., M.T.S. Marquette University, 2018 Origen has traditionally been famous for his universalism, but many scholars now express doubt that Origen believed in a universal and permanent apocatastasis. This is because many scholars are convinced that Origen’s teaching on moral autonomy (or freedom of choice) is logically incompatible with the notion that God foreordains every soul’s future destiny. Those few scholars who do argue that Origen believed in both moral autonomy and universal salvation either do not know how to reconcile these two views in Origen’s theology, or their proposed “solutions” are not convincing. In this dissertation I make two preliminary arguments which allow the question of logical compatibility to come into focus. -
John Ford Wilson UNISA Student Number
John Ford Wilson UNISA Student Number: 4593-816-4 275 Elkins Lake Huntsville, Texas 77340 USA 1-713-202-8953 [email protected] Approved Thesis Title: Examination of the Work of John C. Polkinghorne Praeparatio Evangelii Supervisor: Professor William J. Abraham Co-supervisor: Professor Vaughn Willard Baker Date of Submission of Thesis: i Curriculum Vitae John Ford Wilson Curriculum Vitae EDUCATION Ph.D. Physics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas M.S. Physics, Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia, Pa. M.S. Theological Studies, Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University M.S. Industrial Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Tennessee. EXPERIENCE Lecturer, Department of Physics, Sam Houston State University; Huntsville, Texas Member The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science Fellow, Center of Faith and Culture at University of St. Thomas; Houston, Texas Adjunct Faculty for Institute for Spirituality and Health, Houston, Texas Associate Pastor for Evangelism, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church; Houston, Texas Ordained Deacon in Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church Research Assistant Professor of Physics and Director of Educational Outreach, University of Houston; Houston, Texas Professor of Physics Houston Community College System; Houston, Texas Adjunct Professor of Physics University of St. Thomas; Houston, Texas Wilson and Associates: Self-employed as consultant in Houston, Tx. for marketing, business and strategic planning, and investment management. E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. Marketing Division, DuPont Textile Fibers Dept: Technical Service Manager for Reemay® and Typar®. Marketing Manager for Reemay®, Typar®, and Sontara®. Strategy and Development Assistant for Nomex® fiber and paper; responsible for business plans, earnings, and forecast. -
Nineteenth Century Cracks in the Concept of Determinism
!"#$%$$#%&'($#%)*+'(*,-./'"#'%&$'(0#-$1%'02'3$%$*4"#"/4 5)%&0*6/78'9,#':,-."#; <$="$>$?'>0*.6/78 @0)*-$8'A0)*#,B'02'%&$':"/%0*+'02'9?$,/C'D0BE'FFC'!0E'G'6A)BE'H'@$1EC'IJKG7C'11E'FLLHFML N)OB"/&$?'O+8'University of Pennsylvania Press @%,OB$'P<Q8'http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709176 . 5--$//$?8'IIRIIRSTII'IK8TT Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Ideas. http://www.jstor.org NINETEENTH CENTURY CRACKS IN THE CONCEPT OF DETERMINISM BY IAN HACKING Deterministe: Nom d'une secte peu connue en Allemagne et qui y a peu d'influence. Determinisme: Systeme, principes, doctrine des deterministes.1 Duringthe nineteenth century we witness an event that I call the erosion of determinism. At the start of the period we read Laplace, confident that all the world is ruled with the same exact necessity as is found in celestial mechanics. At the end we find C.S. Peirce (1839-1914) asserting there is no ground for believing either such a doctrine of necessity or for holding that the laws of natureare rightly represented by precise numerical constants. -
Philosophical Quarterly
THE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY VOL. 10 No. 39 APRIL 1960 GOD AND EVIL A. THE PROBLEM STATED: Evil is a problem for the theist in that a contradiction is involved in the fact of evil on the one hand, and the belief in the omnipotence and perfection of God on the other. God cannot be both all-powerful and perfectly good if evil is real. This contradiction is well set out in its detail by Mackie in his discussion of the problem.l In his discussion Mackie seeks to show that this contradiction cannot be resolved in terms of man's free will. In arguing in this way Mackie neglects a large number of important points, and concedes far too much to the theist. He implicitly allows that whilst physical evil creates a problem, this problem is reducible to the problem of moral evil and that therefore the satisfactoriness of solutions of the problem of evil turns on the compatibility of free will and absolute goodness. In fact physical evils create a number of distinct problems which are not reducible to the problem of moral evil. Further, the proposed solu- tion of the problem of moral evil in terms of free will renders the attempt to account for physical evil in terms of moral good, and the attempt thereby to reduce the problem of evil to the problem of moral evil, completely un- tenable. Moreover, the account of moral evil in terms of free will breaks down on more obvious and less disputable grounds than those indicated by Mackie. Moral evil can be shown to remain a problem whether or not free will is compatible with absolute goodness. -
Existentialism
TOPIC FOR- SEM- III ( PHIL-CC 10) CONTEMPORARY WESTERN PHILOSOPHY BY- DR. VIJETA SINGH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR P.G. DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY PATNA UNIVERSITY Existentialism Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that humans define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. This philosophical theory propounds that people are free agents who have control over their choices and actions. Existentialists believe that society should not restrict an individual's life or actions and that these restrictions inhibit free will and the development of that person's potential. History 1 Existentialism originated with the 19th Century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, but they did not use the term (existentialism) in their work. In the 1940s and 1950s, French existentialists such as Jean- Paul Sartre , Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir wrote scholarly and fictional works that popularized existential themes, such as dread, boredom, alienation, the absurd, freedom, commitment and nothingness. The first existentialist philosopher who adopted the term as a self-description was Sartre. Existentialism as a distinct philosophical and literary movement belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries, but elements of existentialism can be found in the thought (and life) of Socrates, in the Bible, and in the work of many pre-modern philosophers and writers. Noted Existentialists: Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Nationality Denmark Friedrich Nietzsche(1844-1900) Nationality Germany Paul Tillich(1886-1965) Nati…United States, Germany Martin Heidegger ( 1889-1976) Nati…Germany Simone de Beauvior(1908-1986) Nati…France Albert Camus (1913-1960) Nati….France Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) Nati….France 2 What does it mean to exist ? To have reason. -
Peircean Cosmogony's Symbolic Agapistic Self-Organization As an Example of the Influence of Eastern Philosophy on Western Thinking
Peircean Cosmogony's Symbolic Agapistic Self-organization as an Example of the Influence of Eastern Philosophy on Western Thinking Brier, Søren Document Version Accepted author manuscript Published in: Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2017.09.010 Publication date: 2017 License CC BY-NC-ND Citation for published version (APA): Brier, S. (2017). Peircean Cosmogony's Symbolic Agapistic Self-organization as an Example of the Influence of Eastern Philosophy on Western Thinking. Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology, (131), 92-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2017.09.010 Link to publication in CBS Research Portal General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us ([email protected]) providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 Peircean Cosmogony's Symbolic Agapistic Self-organization as an Example of the Influence of Eastern Philosophy on Western Thinking Søren Brier Journal article (Accepted manuscript) CITE: Brier, S. (2017). Peircean Cosmogony's Symbolic Agapistic Self-organization as an Example of the Influence of Eastern Philosophy on Western Thinking. Progress in Biophysics & Molecular -
SPINOZA's ETHICS: FREEDOM and DETERMINISM by Alfredo Lucero
SPINOZA’S ETHICS: FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM by Alfredo Lucero-Montaño 1. What remains alive of a philosopher's thought are the realities that concern him, the problems that he addresses, as well as the questions that he poses. The breath and depth of a philosopher's thought is what continues to excite and incite today. However, his answers are limited to his time and circumstances, and these are subject to the historical evolution of thought, yet his principal commitments are based on the problems and questions with which he is concerned. And this is what resounds of a philosopher's thought, which we can theoretically and practically adopt and adapt. Spinoza is immersed in a time of reforms, and he is a revolutionary and a reformer himself. The reforming trend in modern philosophy is expressed in an eminent way by Descartes' philosophy. Descartes, the great restorer of science and metaphysics, had left unfinished the task of a new foundation of ethics. Spinoza was thus faced with this enterprise. But he couldn't carry it out without the conviction of the importance of the ethical problems or that ethics is involved in a fundamental aspect of existence: the moral destiny of man. Spinoza's Ethics[1] is based on a theory of man or, more precisely, on an ontology of man. Ethics is, for him, ontology. He does not approach the problems of morality — the nature of good and evil, why and wherefore of human life — if it is not on the basis of a conception of man's being-in-itself, to wit, that the moral existence of man can only be explained by its own condition. -
The Philosophy of William James As Related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux
Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1987 The philosophy of William James as related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux Peggy Lyne Hurtado Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Intellectual History Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Hurtado, Peggy Lyne, "The philosophy of William James as related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux" (1987). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3713. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.5597 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. ---- l I AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Peggy Lyne Hurtado for the Master of Arts in History presented June 10, 1987. Title: The Philosophy of William James as Related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux. APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITTEE: Michael F. Reard~n, Chairman Guin~ David Joh This thesis argues two issues: William James' philosophy was-to a great extent derived from his interaction with the French philosophers, Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux. Correlative to the fact that these five figures have an intellectual 2 relationship with one another, I also argue that in order to understand James, he must be placed within the context of these relations. -
Free Will of an Ontologically Open Mind
Free Will of an Ontologically Open Mind Jan Scheffel Division of Fusion Plasma Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden, [email protected] Abstract The problem of free will has persistently resisted a solution throughout centuries. There is reason to believe that new elements need to be introduced into the analysis in order to make progress. In the present physicalist approach, these elements are emergence and information theory in relation to universal limits set by quantum physics. Furthermore, the common, but vague, characterization of having free will as "being able to act differently" is, in the spirit of Carnap, rephrased into an explicatum more suitable for formal analysis. It is argued that the mind is an ’ontologically open’ system; a causal high-level system, the future of which cannot be reduced to the states of its associated low-level neural systems, not even if it is rendered physically closed. We believe that a positive answer to the question of free will is outlined. Downward causation is supported and Kim’s problem of causal overdetermination is resolved. Keywords Free will, determinism, downward causation, emergence, ontologically open, mind-body problem, consciousness, subconsciousness. 1 Introduction and background Must we have the thoughts we have? Do our thoughts only happen, rather than being created by ourselves? Does determinism hold our will into an iron grip? The free will problem presumably is the most important existential problem and has generated shelf kilometers of literature throughout the centuries. One reason for the problematic situation can be traced to the common definition of free will as ’the ability to act differently’.