Does Free Will Really Exist?
Sun, Feb 11 2018 03:55
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Takes place on Thursday 8th March
2018, 7.30pm to 9.00pm at The Woodman, New Canal Street, Birmingham B5 5LG
(near Millennium Point)
When you make up
your mind to do something – whether it be trivial or life-changing – is it
really you who decides?
Free will is at the
core of our being. But aren’t some events in the universe simply caused
by earlier events rather than happening of their own accord?
In what sense then do
we have free will to make our own independent choices? Philosophers and
scientists have spent more than 2,000 years debating this question and no
definitive answer is in sight. Are their debates just a pointless
exercise in philosophical navel gazing, a waste of intellectual energy, or does
the free-will debate have deeper implications in our lives?
From the 18th
century Enlightenment onwards, Western thinkers saw free will as distinguishing
us from other animals, and gave all of humanity a common identity.
However constrained one person’s freedom might be compared with another, we all
must make choices. This allows us to recognise all people as beings who share
the same sort of internal lives as ourselves.
Recent surveys show
up a widening gulf between professional philosophers, scientists and graduate
students on the one hand and the general public on the other. Less than 14% in
the first group believe in free will, whereas over 70% do. Are we commoners
deluding ourselves by holding on to a belief which implies that we are special,
or it is the experts who have got it wrong?
Speakers
Chrissie Daz is a school teacher, cabaret performer and
author on transgender and gender variant identity.
Dr Greg Scorzo is a director and editor of the online
magazine Culture on the Offensive. He has a PhD in
meta-Ethics, and has taught a wide range of philosophy seminars between
2008-13, including Plato, political philosophy, philosophy of language, and
philosophy of mind.
We thank the Woodman for hosting this event, and look forward to seeing you there.
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