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
32.95 € [D]
If you have placed a standing order for the series: 29.65 € [D]
About the serial prices
ISBN 978-3-525-56986-3

Short information

Do the results of the modern neurosciences signal the end of freedom? Philip Clayton presents a number of different models of free will in the light of the newest scientific, theological and philosophical findings.

About this book

Do the advances in the neurosciences force us to take leave or at least radically revise our previous philosophical and theological notions of the freedom and responsibility of human beings? Do the research results demand adoption of a strict determinism – or would that represent a misinterpretation of the empirical data? What can modern theology contribute to this discussion by addressing the affective basis of religious beliefs?
During the summer semester 2006 Philip Clayton held six lectures that were part of the first series of Frankfurt Templeton Lectures on the theme “Does Matter Rule the Mind? The Neurosciences and Free Will”. This volume contains the manuscripts of those lectures in slightly revised form. They appeared in German in 2007, and these are the English versions thereof.

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