The Limits of Free Will

Author(s):  
Paul Russell

This volume contains a selection of chapters concerning free will and moral responsibility. The problems arising in this field of philosophy, which are deeply rooted in the history of the subject, are also intimately related to a wide range of other fields, such as law and criminology, moral psychology, theology, and, more recently, neuroscience. The chapters included in this collection were written and first published over a period of three decades, although most have appeared in the past decade or so. During this period this area of philosophy has been particularly active and it continues to attract a great deal of interest and attention. Among the topics covered, as they relate to these problems, are the challenge of skepticism; moral sentiment and moral capacity; necessity and the metaphysics of causation; practical reason; free will and art; fatalism and the limits of agency; and our metaphysical attitudes of optimism and pessimism.

Philosophy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Timpe

Free will is a perennial issue in philosophy, both in terms of the history of philosophy and in contemporary discussions. Aspects of free will relate to a wide range of philosophical issues, but especially to metaphysics and ethics. For roughly the past three decades, the literatures on free will and moral responsibility have overlapped to such a degree that it is impossible to separate them. This entry focuses on contemporary discussions about the nature and existence of free will, as well as its relationship to work in the sciences and philosophy of religion.


1950 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Hopkinson

A technique is described by which, the quantitative connection between physical aspects of a stimulus situation and subjective aspects of the perceptual response may be conveniently and reliably determined. The subject is given control of one of the significant physical variables such, for instance, as brightness, and is asked to set this variable to correspond In turn with a limited number of defined criteria relating to a subjective variable such as glare-discomfort It is found that each criterion acts as a check upon judgments made in terms of the others, so that the scatter of the control settings Is less than when a single criterion is used The functional relationship between the physical and the subjective variable can be estimated, and provided care Is taken in the design of the experiment and In the selection of observers, consistent results are obtained. This technique has been applied during the past ten years to a wide range of visual problems which Include those of the visibility of radar echoes, the visibility of street-lighting from the air, discomfort-glare and ease of reading. It Is thought that It might find wide application not only in applied Psychological work but in the investigation of problems of theoretical import.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Brandon W. Hawk

Literature written in England between about 500 and 1100 CE attests to a wide range of traditions, although it is clear that Christian sources were the most influential. Biblical apocrypha feature prominently across this corpus of literature, as early English authors clearly relied on a range of extra-biblical texts and traditions related to works under the umbrella of what have been called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and “New Testament/Christian Apocrypha." While scholars of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha have long trained their eyes upon literature from the first few centuries of early Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval period has much to offer. This article presents a survey of significant developments and key threads in the history of scholarship on apocrypha in early medieval England. My purpose is not to offer a comprehensive bibliography, but to highlight major studies that have focused on the transmission of specific apocrypha, contributed to knowledge about medieval uses of apocrypha, and shaped the field from the nineteenth century up to the present. Bringing together major publications on the subject presents a striking picture of the state of the field as well as future directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
Dildora Alinazarova ◽  

In this article, based on an analysis of a wide range of sources, discusses the emergence and development of periodicals and printing house in Namangan. The activities of Ibrat- as the founder of the first printing house in Namangan are considered. In addition, it describes the functioning and development of "Matbaai Ishokia" in the past and present


Author(s):  
Thomas H. McCall ◽  
Keith D. Stanglin

“Arminianism” was the subject of important theological controversies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it maintains an important position within Protestant thought. What became known as “Arminian” theology was held by people across a swath of geographical and ecclesial positions; it developed in European, British, and American contexts, and it engaged with a wide range of intellectual challenges. While standing together in their common rejection of several key planks of Reformed theology, proponents of Arminianism took various positions on other matters. Some were broadly committed to catholic and creedal theology; others were more open to theological revision. Some were concerned primarily with practical concerns; others were engaged in system building as they sought to articulate and defend an overarching vision of God and the world. The story of this development is both complex and important for a proper understanding of the history of Protestant theology. However, this historical development of Arminian theology is not well known. In this book, Thomas H. McCall and Keith D. Stanglin offer a historical introduction to Arminian theology as it developed in modern thought, providing an account that is based upon important primary sources and recent secondary research that will be helpful to scholars of ecclesial history and modern thought as well as comprehensible and relevant for students.


2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 859-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER LEE

AbstractOver the past three decades Jean Bethke Elshtain has used her critique and application of just war as a means of engaging with multiple overlapping aspects of identity. Though Elshtain ostensibly writes about war and the justice, or lack of justice, therein, she also uses just war a site of analysis within which different strands of subjectivity are investigated and articulated as part of her broader political theory. This article explores the proposition that Elshtain's most important contribution to the just war tradition is not be found in her provision of codes or her analysis of ad bellum or in bello criteria, conformity to which adjudges war or military intervention to be just or otherwise. Rather, that she enriches just war debate because of the unique and sometimes provocative perspective she brings as political theorist and International Relations scholar who adopts, adapts, and deploys familiar but, for some, uncomfortable discursive artefacts from the history of the Christian West: suffused with her own Christian faith and theology. In so doing she continually reminds us that human lives, with all their attendant political, social, and religious complexities, should be the focus when military force is used, or even proposed, for political ends.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Parola

This essay derives from the primary need to make order between direct and indirect sources available for the reconstruction of the history of video art in Italy in the seventies. In fact, during the researches for the Ph.D. thesis it became clear that in most cases it is difficult to define, in terms of facts, which of the different historiographies should be taken into consideration to deepen the study of video art in Italy. Beyond legitimate differences of perspectives and methods, historiographical narratives all share similar issues and narrative structure. The first intention of the essay is, therefore, to compare the different historiographic narratives on Italian video art of the seventies, verifying their genealogy, the sources used and the accuracy of the narrated facts. For the selection of the corpus, it was decided to analyze in particular monographic volumes dealing with the history of the origins of video art in Italy. The aim was, in fact, to get a wide range of types of "narrations", as in the case of contemporary art and architecture magazines, which are examined in the second part of the essay. After the selection, for an analytical and comparative study of the various historiography, the essay focuses only on the Terza Biennale Internazionale della Giovane Pittura. Gennaio ’70. Comportamenti, oggetti e mediazioni (Third International Biennial of Young Painting. January '70. Behaviors, Objects and Mediations, 1970, Bologna), the exhibition which - after Lucio Fontana's pioneering experiments - is said to be the first sign of the arrival of videotape in Italy (called at the time videorecording), curated by Renato Barilli, Tommaso Trini, Andrea Emiliani and Maurizio Calvesi. The narration given so far of this exhibition appeared more mythological than historical and could be compared structurally to that of the many numerous beginnings that historiographyies on international video art identify as ‘first’ and ‘generative’. In the first part of the essay the 'facts' related to Gennaio ’70, as narrated by historiography on video art, are compared. In the second part the survey is carried out through some of the direct sources identified during the research, with the aim of answering to questions raised by the comparison between historiographies. Concluding, it is important to underline that the tapes containing the videos transmitted have not been found and seem to have disappeared since the ending of the exhibition. Nevertheless, the deepening of the works and documentation transmitted during the exhibition is possible thanks to other types of sources which give us many valuable information regarding video techniques and practices at the beginning of 1970 in Italy.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rouben Karapetyan

The textbook covers the main events and developments in the recent history of the Arab world. The key issues of the past and present of the major Arab countries are examined. The general patterns, main stages and peculiarities of the historical development of these countries are presented. The work is designed for students of the faculties of “Oriental Studies”, “History” and “International Relations”, as well as wide range of readers interested in the history of the Arab world.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1079-1088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C Griffiths ◽  
David W Knight ◽  
Ian R Morgan ◽  
Amy Ford ◽  
James Brown ◽  
...  

Understanding the gelation of liquids by low molecular weight solutes at low concentrations gives an insight into many molecular recognition phenomena and also offers a simple route to modifying the physical properties of the liquid. Bis-(α,β-dihydroxy ester)s are shown here to gel thermoreversibly a wide range of solvents, raising interesting questions as to the mechanism of gelation. At gelator concentrations of 5–50 mg ml−1, gels were successfully formed in acetone, ethanol/water mixtures, toluene, cyclohexane and chloroform (the latter, albeit at a higher gelator concentration). A range of neutron techniques – in particular small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) – have been employed to probe the structure of a selection of these gels. The universality of gelation in a range of solvent types suggests the gelation mechanism is a feature of the bis-(α,β-dihydroxy ester) motif, with SANS demonstrating the presence of regular structures in the 30–40 Å range. A correlation between the apparent rodlike character of the structures formed and the polarity of the solvent is evident. Preliminary spin-echo neutron scattering studies (SESANS) indicated the absence of any larger scale structures. Inelastic neutron spectroscopy (INS) studies demonstrated that the solvent is largely unaffected by gelation, but does reveal insights into the thermal history of the samples. Further neutron studies of this kind (particularly SESANS and INS) are warranted, and it is hoped that this work will stimulate others to pursue this line of research.


In the last year or two there has been a remarkable increase in the interest, both popular and scientific, in the subject of climatic change. This stems from a recognition that even a highly technological society is vulnerable to the effects of climatic fluctuations and indeed may become more so, as margins of surplus food production are reduced, and nations become more interdependent for their food supply. In this respect our concern is with quite small changes - a degree (Celsius) or less in temperature and 10 % or so in rainfall. Probably we may discount some of the more alarmist suggestions of an imminent and rapid change towards near glacial conditions as these are based on very sketchy evidence. However, whatever the time-scale of climatic fluctuations with which we are concerned, we may hope to learn a great deal which is relevant to the factors which will control our future climate from the study of its more extreme vagaries in the past. Information relevant to the weather in such extreme periods is coming forward in increasing detail and volume from a wide range of disciplines. The variety of the evidence, its lack of precision as a strict measure of climate, and the number of different sources all make it difficult for an individual to build up a clear picture of past climates. However such a picture is needed, if explanations and interpretation are to be possible. Ideally one would need a synchronous picture of the climate of the whole world at selected epochs in the past. Various international programmes are directed to forming such pictures.


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