June 19

Title: Is Free Will and Illusion?

Speaker: Dan Aldridge

Abstract:

The question of the existence of free will isn’t just empty philosophical word-games – it deeply affects issues in both religion and society’s values.  In Christianity, Epicurus’s troublesome question:

“Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”
…is answered by apologists primarily with the argument that God gave people free will, and hence, suffering and evil are things we bring upon ourselves. 

But if indeed it turns out that humans are not imbued with free will in the sense Christians claim, then Christians must re-exam Epicurus’s penetrating question in a new light.

In society, the bonuses we heap upon CEO’s  – far disproportionate to the roll statisticians tells us they likely have (or don’t have) in determining a company’s fortunes – are probably due largely in part to the fact that we tend to attribute a God-like agenticity to the visible head of a company, who we imagine determines its fate much in the way we imagine God determines that of the universe, and our indivisible souls determine that of our own lives.    

And in criminal justice, more often than not, we still see systems which are focused primarily on retribution rather than correction. This is to a large degree a result of the fact that, even in light of everything neurology, genetics, psychology and sociology tell us about consciousness and decision-making, we still like to see things in terms of individual agents making choices independently of circumstance.  We bridle at the notion that people aren't responsible for their actions, and seek catharsis in moments where evil-doers receive what we they have coming.

      This discussion will explore these questions, and further, try to see the implications and even suggest a prognosis for individuals and society if indeed the cherished notion of a self -- making choices freely outside the chain of causality -- turns out to be unworkable in light of what science has to say on the subject.




The forums are held in the Café Bastille 3, Taipei City, Daan District, Wenzhou Street, No.7 溫州街7號 (in the basement of the café). It’s close to Daan Forest Park (not the one at Gonguan) near the intersection with Hoping East Road. They start at 8pm.


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