Contributions to Daniel Dennett's Fall 2010
Seminar on Free Will at Tufts University
What if Libertarians Had Accepted What Dan Dennett Gave Them in 1978?
Over thirty years ago, Daniel Dennett proposed a decision-making model that he thought would appeal to libertarians. Unfortunately, led by Robert Kane, libertarians largely ignored Dennett’s proposal...
An Imagined Dialogue Between Bob Kane and Dan Dennett in the Early 1980's
In which Kane accepts the two-stage model (he claims to have already thought of it, but says he did not publish because Dennett had published first) and Dennett accepts the role of quantum indeterminacy.
Who's Afraid of Indeterminism?
A reaction to the paper "Who's Afraid of Determinism?, in the Oxford Handbook of Free Will, and the article "Who's Still Afraid of Determinism"" in the forthcoming second edition of the Handbook.
A Taxonomy of 25 positions in the Free Will Debates
Twenty-five positions taken by philosophers in the ancient and modern debates on the problem of free will are defined and briefly described.
See also
/Freedom/Taxonomy/
The Separability of Free Will and Moral Responsibility
We also separate free from will, moral from responsibility, and moral responsibility from punishment.
See also /Freedom/Separability/
Libet Experiments and the Two-Stage Model
We interpret the rise in the readiness potential as the first stage of a two-stage model, where alternative possibilities are being generated. We show that no causal relationship exists between the RP and the muscle motion.
See also /Freedom/Libet Experiments/
Where, and When, is Randomness Located?
The location and timing of chance as proposed by Dan Dennett, Bob Doyle, Bob Kane, and Al Mele can be displayed at three places in the temporal sequence of the two-stage model, including the "fixed past."
See also /Freedom/Location/
Dan Dennett’s Indeterminism Challenge
Dan Dennett's challenge to give reasons why quantum indeterminacy is better than computer pseudo-randomness was answered with five examples - Laplace's Demon, Intelligent Designers, Frankfurt Controllers, Dennett's Eavesdropper, and Making Memes.
See also Dennett's Challenge
The "Free" and "Will" Stages of the Two-Stage Model
David Hume reconciled freedom with determinism, which he thought was true. We reconcile free will with indeterminism, which we now know to be true.
See also A Review of Two-Stage Models and Comprehensive Compatibilism
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