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The Philosophy of Free Will (Intensive Course)

8.3229

Dozenten

Beschreibung

Course Description
“Free will” is one of the core topics in philosophy with significant implications for ethics, law, psychology, and cognitive science. Is what we do “up to us” in a sense that allows others to hold us accountable for our behavior or are we just the victims of forces beyond our control, be it our genes, our environments, our brains or the deterministic course of the universe? What do we respond to someone who did something morally wrong, but excuses themselves by saying “I could not have done otherwise!”?
This intensive course provides an introduction to the philosophical concept of free will and the problems regarding moral or legal responsibility or accountability related to it from both systematic and historical perspectives. We will (probably, see below) examine the major philosophical positions on free will, including libertarianism, compatibilism, and hard determinism, and discuss their relevance to human agency, moral responsibility, and scientific understanding of human behavior.
Importantly, the exact nature of the course will entirely be up to the students: We will use The Routledge Companion to Free Will as the main background reading, which contains 60 chapters, ranging from fundamental introductions to the major systematic and historic positions over chapters like “Empirical Perspectives on Consciousness and its Relationship to Free Will and Moral Responsibility” or “Addiction” to chapters like “Free Will and Criminal Law” or “A Feminist Approach to Moral Responsibility”. At the beginning of the course, a poll will select the 13 of the 60 chapters students are most interested in, and we will be discussing these throughout the course.
Learning Objectives
Throughout the course, students will engage with classical and contemporary debates regarding free will and moral responsibility, develop critical thinking skills, gain fundamental knowledge in a key area of theoretical philosophy and apply philosophical insights to cognitive science research. By the end of this course, students will be able to understand and articulate the main philosophical arguments concerning free will, critically evaluate different perspectives on the compatibility of free will and determinism, apply philosophical theories of free will to issues in cognitive science, develop and defend their own positions on free will and moral responsibility.
Prerequisites and Assessments
Students should have successfully completed the Philosophy of Cognitive Science lecture. Preference is given to BSc students who want to complete the Philosophy of Mind and Cognition module, but in principle everyone is welcome, space permitting.
Writing Exercises 15%:
Weekly Reading Responses: 15%
Mid-term Essay: 25%
Student Presentation: 15%
Final Paper: 20%

Note: This syllabus is subject to change based on the progress of the course and the needs of the students. Any changes will be communicated promptly.

Weitere Angaben

Ort: 50/E07
Zeiten: Mi. 10:00 - 12:00 (wöchentlich)
Erster Termin: Mittwoch, 30.10.2024 10:00 - 12:00, Ort: 50/E07
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar (Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen)

Studienbereiche

  • Cognitive Science > Bachelor-Programm
  • Cognitive Science > Master-Programm
  • Human Sciences (e.g. Cognitive Science, Psychology)

Past and Forthcoming Events

Publications

  • Asymptotics of a time-bounded cylinder model, with N. Aschenbruck and S. Bussmann, Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269964822000420
  • The method of cumulants for the normal approximation, with S. Jansen and K. Schubert, Probability Surveys 2022, Vol. 19, 185-270, https://doi.org/10.1214/22-PS7
  • Sedentary Random Waypoint, with C. Betken, arXiv:2009.02941
  • The Impact of Bit Errors on Intra-Session Network Coding with Heterogeneous Packet Lengths, with B. Schütz, N. Aschenbruck, S. Bussmann and M. Juhnke-Kubitzke, Proc. of the 45th IEEE LCN Symposium on Emerging Topics in Networking LCN, virtually hosted in Sydney, Australia, Nov. 16–19, 2020.
  • Stationarity for the Small World in Motion Mobility Model, with Nils Aschenbruck, Christian Heiden und Matthias Schwamborn, MSWIM '19: Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM Conference on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems, Nov 25-29, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1145/3345768.3355935
  • Crossing Numbers and Stress of Random Graphs, with Markus Chimani and Matthias Reitzner, In Proceedings 26th International Symposium, GD 2018, Barcelona, Spain, 255--268, 2018 available here and for an extended journal version here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.07558
  • Fluctuations in a general preferential attachment model via Stein's method, with Carina Betken and Marcel Ortgiese, Random Structures & algorithms, vol.55, no.4, 2019 available here
  • Connection times in large ad-hoc mobile networks, Bernoulli, vol.22, no.4, 2143--2176, 2016 available here
    with Gabriel Faraud, Wolfgang König
  • The random disc thrower problem, Proceedings of the 90th European Study Group Mathematics with Industry, 59-78, 2013  available here with T. van der Aalst, D. Denteneer, M. Hong Duong, R. J. Kang, M. Keane, J. Kool, I. Kryven, T. Meyfroyt, T. Müller, G. Regts, J. Tomczyk
  • Edge fluctuations of eigenvalues of Wigner matrices, High Dimensional Probability VI: the Banff volume, Progress in Probability, vol.66, 261-275, Springer, Basel, 2013 available here
    with Peter Eichelsbacher
  • Moderate deviations for the determinant of Wigner matrices, Dedicated to Friedrich Götze on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, Limit Theorems in Probability, Statistics and Number Theory, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, vol.42, 253-275, 2013, available here
    with Peter Eichelsbacher
  • Moderate deviations for the eigenvalue counting function of Wigner matrices, ALEA, Lat. Am. J. Probab. Math. Stat. 10 (1), 27-44, 2013, available here
    with Peter Eichelsbacher
  • Moderate deviations via cumulants, Journal of Theor. Probability, 2012, available here
    with Peter Eichelsbacher
  • Moments of recurrence times for Markov chains, Electronic Comm. Probab., 16(28), 296-303, 2011, available here
    with Frank Aurzada, Marcel Ortgiese, Michael Scheutzow
  • Moderate deviations in a random graph and for the spectrum of Bernoulli random matrices, Electronic Journal of Probability, Vol. 14, Paper no. 92, 2636-2656, 2009, available here
    with Peter Eichelsbacher
  • Perpendicular transport of charged particles in slab turbulence: recovery of diffusion for realistic wave-spectra?, Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 35, 025202, 2008
    with Andreas Shalchi
  • Velocity correlation functions of charged test particles, Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 34, 859, 2007
    with Andreas Shalchi

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