Veritas cafe: Free will

This evening is the second of two (click here for the first) in which we will talk about our personalities. Lieke Asma and Jan Hoogland will talk with us about free will.

When sentient, living beings act a certain way, people tend to be convinced that the person acted freely. And when unconscious objects or beings act a certain way, people tend to be convinced that this object or being has not acted freely.

A much-discussed topic in philosophy is free will. Do people have free will? Some neurobiologists claim that actions a person performs are pre-recorded in your brain. This leads them to believe that there is no free will. There are other philosophers who argue that free will cannot be accessed through science and therefore cannot be determined whether man has one. Other scientists try to prove free will with different arguments.

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Speakers

Jan Hoogland  is professor in Christian philosophy at the university of Twente, lector social issues at the Viaa in Zwolle and lectorer of administrative sciences at the VU in Amsterdam. He focuses on doing his job with passion. He helps professionals, managers and ceo’s of social-cultural organisations with reflection through philosophy.

‘The daily experiences always have a core in science. Science isn’t the ultimate truth. You can have different perspectives of reality. For example a more philosophical way, with more attention for the fundemental values of life’

Lieke Asma obtained her master’s degree in cognitive psychology at the University of Twente and her master’s degree (cum laude) in the philosophy of behavioural sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her PhD research at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is part of the project Science Beyond Scientism.

She is currently doing postgraduate research at the Munich School of Philosophy, investigating the relationship between implicit motives, intentional actions and self-development. Lieke regularly gives public lectures on free will. Articles and interviews about her dissertation have been published in various national newspapers in the Netherlands.