Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments

This essay presents a substantive Thomist response to neurophilosophy’s main experimental challenge to free will: the Libet-style experiments on the neural antecedents of conscious voluntary actions. My response to this challenge will disclose that Thomists are rationally justified in rejecting both...

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第一著者: De Haan, DD
フォーマット: Journal article
言語:English
出版事項: MDPI 2024
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author De Haan, DD
author_facet De Haan, DD
author_sort De Haan, DD
collection OXFORD
description This essay presents a substantive Thomist response to neurophilosophy’s main experimental challenge to free will: the Libet-style experiments on the neural antecedents of conscious voluntary actions. My response to this challenge will disclose that Thomists are rationally justified in rejecting both the conclusions of neurophilosophy skeptics of free will, and more fundamentally, the rival philosophical conceptions of voluntary action and free will that were chosen to be operationalized in these neuroscientific experiments. I show how the Thomists’ alternative conception of human action justifies a significantly different interpretation of Libet-style experiments, one which reveals the psychological phenomenon targeted by these experiments is miscategorized as a voluntary action.
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spelling oxford-uuid:127b959f-a51d-4ec0-a209-3215613fe24b2024-10-16T09:17:36ZFreeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style ExperimentsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:127b959f-a51d-4ec0-a209-3215613fe24bEnglishJisc Publications RouterMDPI2024De Haan, DDThis essay presents a substantive Thomist response to neurophilosophy’s main experimental challenge to free will: the Libet-style experiments on the neural antecedents of conscious voluntary actions. My response to this challenge will disclose that Thomists are rationally justified in rejecting both the conclusions of neurophilosophy skeptics of free will, and more fundamentally, the rival philosophical conceptions of voluntary action and free will that were chosen to be operationalized in these neuroscientific experiments. I show how the Thomists’ alternative conception of human action justifies a significantly different interpretation of Libet-style experiments, one which reveals the psychological phenomenon targeted by these experiments is miscategorized as a voluntary action.
spellingShingle De Haan, DD
Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments
title Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments
title_full Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments
title_fullStr Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments
title_full_unstemmed Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments
title_short Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments
title_sort freeing the will from neurophilosophy voluntary action in thomas aquinas and libet style experiments
work_keys_str_mv AT dehaandd freeingthewillfromneurophilosophyvoluntaryactioninthomasaquinasandlibetstyleexperiments