Passing the Torch!

It's time to once again pass the torch here at Flickers of Freedom from one Featured Author to the next. But first, I wanted to thank Helen Steward for generating such an illuminating discussion last month about the nature of determinism. Over the course of the month, 57 comments were posted in response to her initial post.  It was a very helpful and sustained discussion that ranged over metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and the history of philosophy.  I personally learned an awful lot from the discussion thread. So, thanks to all those who participated. It's no small wonder the free will debate is so protracted given that we can't even agree on what "determinism" means (or what determinism is)! Luckily, there's room for progress and discussions like the one ushered in by Helen last month help move us in the right direction.

That said, it is now time to welcome this month's Featured Author--Sarah Paul (PhD Stanford). Professor Paul is  normally Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but will be Visiting Assistant Professor at M.I.T. for Fall 2015.  She is interested in all things related to intention and action explanation. She is primarily a philosopher of action, but thinks that some of the most interesting results in philosophy come out of ecumenical, holistic approaches that cross subfield divisions, and so tries to make progress on understanding agency by thinking about related questions in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics, and metaethics.  She wants to know how intentions relate to beliefs; how we know of our intentions, and of our resulting actions; what rational requirements apply to our intentions and beliefs, what reasons we have to obey them, and how we manage to do so from a psychological point of view; and what implications these answers have for moral responsibility and the criminal law.  A major theme of all of these projects is that we should be wary of idealization; our psychological limitations should directly inform our understanding of rationality, and an adequate account of what we ought to do should be directly sensitive to how we are to do it.

Recent articles include "Doxastic Self-Control" (American Philosophical Quarterly), "The Transparency of Intention" (Philosophical Studies), "Diachronic Incontinence is a Problem in Moral Philosophy" (Inquiry, special issue) and "Embarking on a Crime" (Law and the Philosophy of Action, Rodopi Press).  She is also just beginning to work on a textbook on the Philosophy of Action for the Routledge Contemporary Introduction to Philosophy series.

So, please join me in welcoming Sarah to the fray here at Flickers of Freedom.  I am excited to see what she comes up during the coming weeks.  Hopefully, I will hear from you in the discussion threads!

p.s.  Here is the scheduled line up in the months ahead. I have purposely left some time open so that regular contributors can post without feeling like they are infringing upon someone else's time.

 

September:   Heidi Maibom
October:         Natalia Washington 

2016:
June/July:    Patricia Greenspan  

 

Comments

[Jeff Johnson]

Thomas and/or Eddy.

Is the month of December still open? And if so, would it be possible for you guys to get Peter Tse back for that month?

[Jeff Johnson]

Thomas and Eddy, I wanted to pass on this link to you guys. This just came out.

Did My Brain Make Me Do It? Neuroscience and Free Will (Part 1)

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/danaher20150705