It pleases me to announce a mini-workshop on Freedom in Action will be held on Monday the 8th of June in Utrecht. 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 (Utrecht, 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 University/ University of Konstanz).

The workshop will take place in the Sweelinckzaal, Drift 21 Utrecht, from 10:00 to 17:00.

You are all invited to attend this workshop, but since space is somewhat limited please send an email to niels.vanmiltenburg@uu.nl if you would like to come. Please also email if you would like to receive a (digital) copy of the thesis.