Free will is not a testable hypothesis
Erkenntnis:1-15 (forthcoming)
| Abstract |
Much recent work in neuroscience aims to shed light on whether we have free will. Can it? Can any science? To answer, we need to disentangle different notions of free will, and clarify what we mean by ‘empirical’ and ‘testable’. That done, my main conclusion is, duly interpreted: that free will is not a testable hypothesis. In particular, it is neither verifiable nor falsifiable by empirical evidence. The arguments for this are not a priori but rather are based on a posteriori consideration of the relevant neuroscientific investigations, as well as on standard philosophy of science work on the notion of testability.
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| DOI | 10.1007/s10670-018-9974-y |
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Unconscious Cerebral Initiative and the Role of Conscious Will in Voluntary Action.Benjamin W. Libet - 1985 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 8 (4):529-66.
Philosophical Explanations.Robert Nozick - 1981 - Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 14 (41):87-93.
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Living Without Free Will.Derk Pereboom - 2003 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 67 (2):494-497.
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What Good Are Abstract and What-If Models? Lessons From the Gaïa Hypothesis.Sébastien Dutreuil - 2014 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 36 (1):16-41.
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Explanatory Judgment, Moral Offense and Value-Free Science.Matteo Colombo, Leandra Bucher & Yoel Inbar - 2016 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 7 (4):743-763.
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2018-01-27
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2018-01-27
Total downloads
42 ( #137,899 of 2,223,696 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
42 ( #8,039 of 2,223,696 )
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