Michael G. Parker (ed.)
Thomas M. Schmidt (ed.)
Philip Clayton

In Quest of Freedom

The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World. Frankfurt Templeton Lectures 2006

Religion, Theologie und Naturwissenschaft / Religion, Theology, and Natural Science (RThN), Band 13
1. Auflage 2009
179 pages mit 13 Abb., gebunden
32.90 € [D]
If you have placed a standing order for the series: 29.60 € [D]
About the serial prices
ISBN 978-3-525-56986-3

Short information

Die Frankfurt Templeton Lectures auf englisch!

About this book

Erzwingen die Fortschritte der Neurowissenschaften die Verabschiedung oder die radikale Revision bisheriger fundamentaler philosophischer und theologischer Überzeugungen in Bezug auf die Freiheit und die Verantwortlichkeit des Menschen? Implizieren diese Forschungsergebnisse einen strengen Determinismus, oder wäre darin eine Fehlinterpretation empirischer Daten zu sehen? Worin kann der Beitrag der modernen Theologie zu dieser Diskussion bestehen, sofern sie die affektive Grundlage des religiösen Glaubens thematisiert? Im Rahmen der ersten Staffel der Frankfurt Templeton Lectures zu dem Thema »Beherrscht die Materie den Geist? Neurowissenschaften und Willensfreiheit« hat Philip Clayton im Sommersemester 2006 sechs Vorlesungen gehalten, deren Manuskripte jetzt überarbeitet in Buchform vorliegen. Auf deutsch bereits 2007 erschienen, ist dies der englische Text der Vorlesung.

Content

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Chapter 1: The Age of Neuroscience and the End of Freedom?

The Data on Neural Correlates of Consciousness — A Neuroscientific Theory of Cognition: The Global Workspace Model — The Burden of Proof and the Loss of Innocence — Have We Lost All Conscious Control? — Do We Now Need a Revised View of the Person? — Drawing Conclusions — A More Radical Entailment? — What Comes Next

Chapter 2. Growing Freedom? Complexity, Spontaneity, and Social Behaviors in Biological Evolution

Introduction — Studying the Evolution of Biological Novelty — The Means of Complexification in Natural History — The Emergence of Species — From Sociality to Culture — Culture as a New Type of Evolutionary Dynamic — First Conclusions

Chapter 3. Co-evolution, Mental Causality, and Human Action: Freedom and the Emergence of Culture

Introduction — The Architectonic of the Argument — Learning and Culture — Co-evolution — What is Right, and what Wrong, about Evolutionary Psychology? — The Self, Sociality, and Cognition — The Biological Birth of Spirit — Toward a “Gradualist” Theory of Freedom

Chapter 4. Forms of Freedom, As-If Freedom, and Asymptotic Freedom: A Challenge to Neurophilosophy

Kant and Compatibilism: The Last Word on Freedom? — Is Spontaneous Agency Sufficient for Freedom? — Agential Actions and Self-Determination — Incompatible but not Counterfactual: Conceptual Parameters for Talk of Freedom — The Doctrine of Gradual or Asymptotic Freedom — An Epistemological Aside — Transcendental Freedom — Freedom and Being Responsible for One’s Past — The Unexplored Option: Openings toward a Philosophy of Nature

Chapter 5. On Religion: A Speech to its Scientifically Cultured Despisers

The Theme of Freedom — To the Cultured Scientific Despisers of Religion — In-built Dangers in the “Science of Religion” — The Sciences — Schleiermacher and Theology — What Is the Religious Vision? — Conclusion

Chapter 6. Freedom and Transcendence

Freedom and the “More Than” of Human Action — Excursus: From Regulative to Constitutive — Imago Dei Correlations — Two Modes of Self-Transcendence — Freedom, Ground, and the Emergence of Spirit — Freedom and Anthropology — The Unity of the Person, Moral Responsibility, and the “Basic Orientation” — Retrospective and Conclusions

Index

List of Figures

Summary

Science deeply challenges classical descriptions of the human person as »free« and as »spirit«. This survey of contemporary neuroscience and evolutionary biology explores why these challenges have arisen. At the same time it finds in the religious dimension of human existence powerful resources for speaking of the »Emergenz des Geistes« and of a deeper sense of human freedom.