22-26 George Street Edinburgh EH2 2PQ
What does it really mean to have free will?
In this engaging talk, Professor Pamela Hieronymi pulls apart two aspects of the free will debate by separating “problems in life,” such as obstacles and constraints on thoughts and actions, from a “problem in theory” that arises when trying to understand how agency itself operates.
While the “problems in life” can be avoided, theoretical questions about freedom must be addressed philosophically. Professor Hieronymi proposes we do so by expanding our too-narrow ideas about control. People often mistakenly believe they must control their own decisions in the same way they control their actions, and then find themselves concluding that we do not really control anything—we enjoy only the control of a thermostat. Hieronymi argues, to the contrary, that we control our decisions in a very different way: in the way we control our answers to questions.
Tickets available in-person and online.
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Speaker
Pamela Hieronymi is a Professor of Philosophy at UCLA working at the intersection of
ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action. She is currently unwinding the
problem of free will and moral responsibility in a manuscript, Minds Matter. Hieronymi also
served as a consultant for NBC’s sitcom, The Good Place.