Course Overview

Do we have free will or is free will an illusion? The problem goes back at least to the Stoics. Due to developments over the last few decades in neurocience and research on the brain, it has taken central position in today’s discussion, not only in sophisticated philosophical circles but also in the popular media. The problem is related to philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, moral theory, and many other areas. In this course we will read some now almost classic essays on free will from the analytic tradition of the 20th century. We will use the book “Free Will”, second edition, edited by Gary Watson, 2003. The book has a little more than 400 pages and contains 22 essays. We will probably read one essay per week and thus not be able to read all of them. This course is not about the history of free will. It is about arguments, not about history. But the arguments have a history themselves.

Learning Achievement

The course objective is to lead us to a better understanding of the problem of free will in its current debate. Free will touches on many basic problems in philosophy, such as determinism, physicalism, mind-soul identity or mind-brain identity (or duality), personal identity, and morality. We will try to arrive at a better understanding of these issues and their many ways of interconnectedness.

Competence

Course prerequisites

Grading Philosophy

Course schedule

Course type

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Christian Helmut Wenzel

Other information

Graduate Institute of Philosophy

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