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VU Philosophy Colloquium

5 April 2018

Description

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Spinoza, Free Will, and the Legacy of the Radical Enlightenment. Spinoza contends in his Ethics that we do not have “absolute or free will;” that is, we do not have the faculty of willing or not willing defended by Descartes, and we are always causally determined to act as we do. Spinoza also argues that “knowledge of this doctrine is to our advantage in life,” both personal and social. Leading figures of the Radical Enlightenment subsequently endorsed this position. After setting out…

Spinoza, Free Will, and the Legacy of the Radical Enlightenment. Spinoza contends in his Ethics that we do not have “absolute or free will;” that is, we do not have the faculty of willing or not willing defended by Descartes, and we are always causally determined to act as we do. Spinoza also argues that “knowledge of this doctrine is to our advantage in life,” both personal and social. Leading figures of the Radical Enlightenment subsequently endorsed this position. After setting out Spinoza’s argument for skepticism about free will, this lecture will assess his claims for its value in human life in the context of the Radical Enlightenment’s aspirations.

Derk Pereboom is the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at Cornell University. His research areas are free will and moral responsibility, philosophy of mind, Kant, and philosophy of religion, and he is the author of Living without Free Will (Cambridge 2001), Consciousness and the Prospects of Physicalism (Oxford 2011), and Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life (Oxford 2014).

Details

Date:
5 April 2018
Event Category:

Venue

room HG-05A36, Main Building VU, De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam

Spinoza, Free Will, and the Legacy of the Radical Enlightenment. Spinoza contends in his Ethics that we do not have “absolute or free will;” that is, we do not have the faculty of willing or not willing defended by Descartes, and we are always causally determined to act as we do. Spinoza also argues that “knowledge of this doctrine is to our advantage in life,” both personal and social. Leading figures of the Radical Enlightenment subsequently endorsed this position. After setting out Spinoza’s argument for skepticism about free will, this lecture will assess his claims for its value in human life in the context of the Radical Enlightenment’s aspirations.

Derk Pereboom is the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at Cornell University. His research areas are free will and moral responsibility, philosophy of mind, Kant, and philosophy of religion, and he is the author of Living without Free Will (Cambridge 2001), Consciousness and the Prospects of Physicalism (Oxford 2011), and Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life (Oxford 2014).

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