Overview
- All star cast on an extremely hot and important topic
- Useful and important contribution to the growing interdisciplinary field of free will
- How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments?
- Analysis of the current state of arguments over the meaning and legitimacy of concepts of emergence and downward causation for free will
- Interdisciplinary discussion of leading experts from neuroscience, physics, physiology,neurobiology, psychology, philosophy, theology or law
Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems (UCS)
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About this book
How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments? How can the emergence of complexity in hierarchical systems such as the brain, based at the lower levels in physical interactions, lead to something like genuine free will? The nature of our understanding of free will in the light of present-day neuroscience is becoming increasingly important because of remarkable discoveries on the topic being made by neuroscientists at the present time, on the one hand, and its crucial importance for the way we view ourselves as human beings, on the other. A key tool in understanding how free will may arise in this context is the idea of downward causation in complex systems, happening coterminously with bottom up causation, to form an integral whole. Top-down causation is usually neglected, and is therefore emphasized in the other part of the book’s title. The concept is explored in depth, as are the ethical and legal implications of our understanding of free will.
This book arises out of a workshop held in California in April of 2007, which was chaired by Dr. Christof Koch. It was unusual in terms of the breadth of people involved: they included physicists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, and theologians. This enabled the meeting, and hence the resulting book, to attain a rather broader perspective on the issue than is often attained at academic symposia. The book includes contributions by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, George F. R. Ellis , Christopher D. Frith, Mark Hallett, David Hodgson, Owen D. Jones, Alicia Juarrero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Christof Koch, Hans Küng, Hakwan C. Lau, Dean Mobbs, Nancey Murphy, William Newsome, Timothy O’Connor, Sean A.. Spence, and Evan Thompson.
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Table of contents (16 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Introduction and Overview
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Part I: Physics, Emergence, and Complex Systems
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Front Matter
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Part II: Volition and Consciousness: Are They Illusions?
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Front Matter
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Part III: Broader Understandings of Volition and Consciousness
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Front Matter
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Part IV: Human Implications of the Debate
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Front Matter
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Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will
Editors: Nancey Murphy, George F. R. Ellis, Timothy O’Connor
Series Title: Understanding Complex Systems
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03205-9
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-642-03204-2Published: 23 September 2009
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-26044-5Published: 14 March 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-03205-9Published: 30 September 2009
Series ISSN: 1860-0832
Series E-ISSN: 1860-0840
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 291
Topics: Complex Systems, Vibration, Dynamical Systems, Control, Neurosciences, Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory, Medical Law, Statistical Physics and Dynamical Systems