Description
Book SynopsisMind, Brain, and Free Will presents a powerful new case for substance dualism (the theory that humans consist of two parts body and soul) and for libertarian free will (that humans have some freedom to choose between alternatives, independently of the causes which influence them). Richard Swinburne begins by analysing the criteria for one event or substance being the same event or substance as another one, and the criteria for an event being metaphysically possible; and then goes on to analyse the criteria for beliefs about these issues being rational or justified. Given these criteria, he then proceeds to argue that pure mental events (including conscious events) are distinct from physical events and interact with them. He claims that no result from neuroscience or any other science could show that there is no such interaction, and illustrates this claim by showing that recent scientific work (such as Libet''s experiments) has no tendency whatever to show that our intentions do not ca
Trade ReviewSwinburne's philosophical system certainly gives us much to think about. Even if one disagrees with Swinburne's conclusions, it is a task to locate which premise is mistaken and to clearly explain why. Swinburne's latest book makes it even more difficult to resist his views about the nature of human beings. * Ted Poston,Journal of Analytic Theology *
Mind, Brain, and the Free Will is the latest in a prolific list of titles from the pen of Richard Swinburne, raising a host of fascinating issues, and there is a fair amount of thought provoking textual analysis in it. * Review of Contemporary Philosophy *
This is an interesting and provocative book. It defends a view about human beings and their nature, which, for better or for worse, is a minority view nowadays among philosophers but which, as Swinburne points out, has probably been the "traditional majority Western view on these issues" . . . The scope of the book is especially impressive, and the picture it paints is powerful and suggestive * David Palmer, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Ontology ; 2. Epistemology ; 3. Property and Event Dualism ; 4. Interactive Dualism ; 5. Agent Causation ; 6. Substance Dualism ; 7. Free Will ; 8. Moral Responsibility ; Additional Notes ; Index
