Great Philosophical Debates: Free Will and Determinism

Do you make your own choices or have circumstances beyond your control already decided your destiny? For thousands of years, this question has intrigued and perplexed philosophers, scientists, and everyone who thinks deliberately about how they choose to live and act. For if free will makes us accountable for our choices, does the opposite hold true, that determinism absolves us of responsibility? The implications of how we resolve this great question can affect everything from the small choices we make every day to our perspective on criminal justice and capital punishment. Now you can begin - or continue - your own exploration of this fundamental issue in a series of thought-provoking lectures from an award-winning scholar acclaimed as one of the most innovative thinkers now working at the intersection of philosophy and psychology. Beginning with an explanation of the fundamental approaches to this debate, Professor Nichols prepares you for an in-depth study of the complexities of free will and determinism. You learn what great thinkers through the ages have believed about the choices we make and understand how we might deal with their implications. Professor Nichols looks at each side of every argument, creating a balanced perspective that invites you to come to your own conclusions about whether or not we control our lives.

All Lectures:
1. Free Will and Determinism - The Basic Debate
2. Fate and Karma
3. Divine Predestination and Foreknowledge
4. Causal Determinism
5. Ancient and Medieval Indeterminism
6. Agent Causation
7. Ancient and Classical Compatibilism
8. Contemporary Compatibilism
9. Hard Determinism
10. Free Will Impossibilism
11. The Belief in Free Will
12. Physics and Free Will
13. Neuroscience and Determinism
14. Neuroscience of Conscious Choice
15. Psychology and Free Will
16. Deontological Ethics and Free Will
17. Utilitarianism and Free Will
18. Responsibility and the Emotions
19. Pessimism and Illusionism
20. Optimism and Skepticism
21. The Ethics of Punishment
22. The Power of Punishment
23. Moral Responsibility and Psychopathy
24. The Future of Responsibility