Indeterminism Ltd.

A mini-workshop on Freedom in Action will be held on Monday the 8th of June in Utrecht,  in the  Sweelinckzaal of Drift 21 from 10:00 to 17:00. The workshop will focus on topics related to Niels van Miltenburg’s doctoral thesis also entitled “Freedom in Action” that will be publically defended on the next day (9th of June, academiegebouw, 10:30).

This thesis defends a libertarian picture of free will from both neuroscientific and philosophical criticisms. It argues that most current views about the metaphysical underpinnings of free will, widely diverging as they appear to be, take a common form of “intentionality + X”—we must add some further metaphysical ingredient to basic intentional action in order to secure the sort of control indicative of free will. It then argues that this generic approach is fatally flawed. Instead we need an account of intentional action that correctly displays the fact that agential control is intrinsic to human action. The thesis develops such an account in terms of practical knowledge (self-knowledge of what one is doing) and the currently resurging metaphysics of powers.

Confirmed Speakers are:

Timothy O’Connor (Indiana University Bloomington),

Erasmus Mayr (Oxford University),

René van Woudenberg (VU University Amsterdam)

Niels van Miltenburg (Utrecht/Konstanz).

Please contact niels.vanmiltenburg@uu.nl if you would like to come to this event.