University of Twente Student Theses
The mediation between brain imaging technologies and libertarian free will theories.
Boomsluiter, W.W. (2018) The mediation between brain imaging technologies and libertarian free will theories.
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| Abstract: | The research question within this thesis is: “How do brain imaging technologies mediate libertarian accounts of free will?”. As explained within this thesis libertarian theories of free will can be categorised within three sub-positions: (a) agent-causal; (b) noncausal (volitionist); and (c) event-causal. This thesis explains that the brain is given a pivotal role within libertarian theories, and that the brain is more often seen as the locus of the mind. Brain imaging technologies have strengthened this change of view in contemporary libertarian theories. Seeing the brain as the locus of the mind also entails that the brain is seen as the locus of agency. Libertarian theories that endorse the idea that the brain is the locus of agency cannot fit into the agent-causal framework, and therefore make use of the event-causal framework. The author claims therefore that this mediation between brain imaging technologies and agency has strengthened a recent shift of libertarian theories from the agent-causal framework towards the event-causal framework. This shift might not even be noticed by the libertarian authors themselves, as the origin of the shift, the mediation of brain imaging technologies, is pushed to the background. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 08 philosophy |
| Programme: | Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society MSc (60024) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/74351 |
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