The Value of Free Will

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-72
Author(s):  
Laura W. Ekstrom
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
The World ◽  
Free Will Defense

This chapter closely examines the free will theodicy and free will defense as responses to arguments from evil for atheism. It sets out three types of accounts of the nature of free will in the contemporary literature on agency and argues that only one of them is suitable for the free will theodicist’s (and defender’s) use. The chapter then takes up the question of whether or not God’s giving created beings free will, as characterized by that suitable sort of account, would make sense—that is, whether or not it would be worth the price. It argues that it would not, or at least that it is not unreasonable to refrain from believing that free will is worth the costs. If free will is not worth the costs, then it is unsuitable to serve as the central good that is alleged to provide a God-justifying reason for allowing evils in the world.

Consciousness, law of nature, and nomological determinism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyang Yu
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Important Thing ◽  
Law Of Nature ◽  
The World ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Brain

Nomological determinism does not mean everything is predictable. It just means everything follows the law of nature. And the most important thing Is that the brain and consciousness follow the law of nature. In other words, there is no free will. Without life, brain and consciousness, the world follows law of nature, that is clear. The life and brain are also part of nature, and they follow the law of nature. This is due to scientific findings. There are not enough scientific findings for consciousness yet. But I think that the consciousness is a nature phenomenon, and it also follows the law of nature.

scholarly journals God and the Playpen: On the Feasibility of Morally Better Worlds

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 266
Author(s):  
Cheryl K. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Actual World ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Moral Goodness ◽  
Divine Intervention ◽  
Horrendous Evil ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Free Will Defense ◽  
Better Than

According to the free will defense, God cannot create a world with free creatures, and hence a world with moral goodness, without allowing for the possibility of evil. David Lewis points out that any free will defense must address the “playpen problem”: why didn’t God allow creatures the freedom required for moral goodness, while intervening to ensure that all evil-doing is victimless? More recently, James Sterba has revived the playpen problem by arguing that an omnipotent and benevolent God would have intervened to prevent significant and especially horrendous evil. I argue that it is possible, at least, that such divine intervention would have backfired, and that any attempt to create a world that is morally better than this one would have resulted in a world that is morally worse. I conclude that the atheologian should instead attack the free will defense at its roots: either by denying that the predetermination of our actions is incompatible with our freely per-forming them, or by denying that the actual world—a world with both moral good and evil—is more valuable than a world without any freedom at all.

The Divided Self in the Fiction of Henry James

PMLA ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-460
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Henry James ◽  
Free Spirit ◽  
Divided Self ◽  
Structural Consequence ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come

AbstractThe divided self in James’s fiction may be regarded as an inevitable structural consequence of James’s desire to dramatize the problem of the free spirit in an enslaving world. But the divided self required by art is not essentially different from the divided self known to psychology, and an understanding of the anxieties of that self, particularly of the “obsessive imagery” James uses to depict those anxieties, enriches our understanding of James’s work. The fear of a world that threatens one’s being issues in an elaborate development of an escape motif; of imagery of seizure by the eye and by the world of appearances; and of imagery of petrification, reflecting a dread of being turned into a mere tool or machine. James’s vision of “the great trap of life” permits him to come to terms with his own limitations and culminates in a searching philosophic examination of the problem of free will and determinism.

In the Mouth of Madness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Blyth
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Initial Release ◽  
The World ◽  
Horror Literature ◽  
Global Corporations ◽  
End Of The World

Somewhat overlooked upon its initial release in 1995, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness has since developed a healthy cult reputation. But far more than simply a fan favourite, this closing instalment of the acclaimed director's self-described “apocalypse trilogy” (following The Thing and Prince Of Darkness) stands today as one of his most thematically complex and stylistically audacious pieces of work. The story of an insurance investigator drawn into the supposedly fictional universe of a best-selling horror novelist, the film is an extension of many recurring themes found in Carpenter's filmography (the end of the world, the loss of free will, a distrust of mass industry and global corporations, the cataclysmic resurgence of ancient evil), as well as an affectionate homage to the works of H. P. Lovecraft (and horror literature more broadly) and a self-reflexive celebration of the horror genre that predates the Scream-inspired postmodernist boom of late-nineties genre cinema. While numerous books and countless academic essays have been written about Carpenter's work, surprisingly little has focused exclusively on In the Mouth of Madness, a film which feels more prescient, more essential, and more daringly complex than ever. This book seeks to redress this imbalance, at last positioning this overlooked masterpiece as essential Carpenter.

XXVI. Maurice Barrès as a Romanticist

PMLA ◽  
1926 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 462-487
Author(s):  
Frederic D. Cheydleur
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Order ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
The World ◽  
French Culture ◽  
Pierre Loti ◽  
Literary Movements

During the last two and a half years France has lost three great writers, Pierre Loti, Anatole France, and Maurice Barrès. Loti, because of his impressionistic novels of the most artistic kind which record his tireless quest of sensations in all countries of the world, France, because of his epicurean philosophy and Voltairean wit expressed in two-score works of the most finished style, and Barrès, because of his triple rôle of author, politician, and leader of traditionalism in France,—all three have left a profound influence on the contemporary literature of their country. Of these three, Barrès, in spite of the conceit of his early egotism, the narrowness of his nationalism, and the occasional arrogance of his confidence in the superiority of French culture, is by far the most highly endowed and representative; and on this account his work will receive more and more attention from serious students of the political, social, and literary movements of the last thirty years in France. He was one of the first to make his voice heard against the extreme naturalism of Zola and his school; he founded a group of enthusiastic young writers striving toward a new order of things; and, after a period of hesitation, he stood forth as the champion of the best traditions of his country. The purpose of this paper is not, however, to make a comparative study of the relative greatness of these three writers, but rather to trace the struggle between the classical and romantic elements in Barrès' composition, and to show that the latter were not only predominant in his first writings but continued to the end of his life as a strong undercurrent in his novels and books of travel.

scholarly journals Czy naprawdę „bezwolny świat"? Kwestia wolnej woli w literaturze popularnonaukowej na przykładzie tekstu Azima F. Shariffa i Kathleen D. Vohs — Is It Really "The World Without Free Will"?

2018 ◽  
pp. 57-74
Author(s):  
Łukasz Jach ◽  
Łukasz Lamża
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
The World

Ustalenia naukowe wywierają coraz większy wpływ na życie współczesnych ludzi, jednak wraz z rosnącym znaczeniem systemu naukowego zwiększa się także ryzyko powstawania zniekształconych wyobrażeń na temat aktualnego stanu nauki oraz tego, co zostało przez nią jednoznacznie rozstrzygnięte. W związku z powyższym, badacze w przekazach kierowanych do szerokiego grona odbiorców zobligowani są nie tylko do klarownego, ale także ostrożnego prezentowania swoich ustaleń. Zalecenie to w szczególności odnosi się do problemów, których korzenie tkwią w dyscyplinach pozanaukowych. Należy do nich m.in. kwestia istnienia wolnej woli, podjęta przez A.F. Shariffa i K.D. Vohs w artykule pt. Bezwolny świat. W publikacji tej pojawiło się kilka uproszczeń, które w niniejszym tekście omówiono w oparciu o ustalenia z zakresu psychologii, fizyki oraz filozofii nauki. Ponadto wskazano problemy powstałe w momencie ekstrapolowania wyników badań naukowych dotyczących wolnej woli na sposoby jej ujmowania, pojawiające się w innych niż naukowy subsystemach społecznych.

scholarly journals Why anything rather than nothing? The answer of quantum mechanics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasil Dinev Penchev
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Mathematical Truth ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
In Virtue Of

Many researchers determine the question “Why anything rather than nothing?” as the most ancient and fundamental philosophical problem. Furthermore, it is very close to the idea of Creation shared by religion, science, and philosophy, e.g. as the “Big Bang”, the doctrine of “first cause” or “causa sui”, the Creation in six days in the Bible, etc.Thus, the solution of quantum mechanics, being scientific in fact, can be interpreted also philosophically, and even religiously. However, only the philosophical interpretation is the topic of the text.The essence of the answer of quantum mechanics is:1. The creation is necessary in a rigorous mathematical sense. Thus, it does not need any choice, free will, subject, God, etc. to appear. The world exists in virtue of mathematical necessity, e.g. as any mathematical truth such as 2+2=4.2. The being is less than nothing rather than more than nothing. So, the creation is not an increase of nothing, but the decrease of nothing: it is a deficiency in relation of nothing. Time and its “arrow” are the way of that diminishing or incompleteness to nothing.

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