Helen Beebee
Gregg D. Caruso

Humans make choices. We steer ourselves through life, deciding where we will live, what we will study, who we will befriend, what we will eat, how we will vote, and what we will do with our money. And because we freely make these choices, we are morally responsible for what we do. People deserve to be praised for making good choices and blamed for making bad ones. All of this is common sense. But could common sense be wrong about this? Some physicists and neuroscientists say that determinism is true, and hence that free will is an illusion. In this public event three philosophers will debate these issues, and help you to figure out whether free will is real.

About the speakers

Professor Helen Beebee

Helen Beebee is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds, and Honorary Professor and Anderson Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney. She has been President of the Aristotelian Society and of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science. She is the author of Philosophy: Why it Matters (with Michael Rush, 2019), Free Will: An Introduction (2013), and other books and articles on a variety of philosophical topics, including causality, laws of nature and scepticism.

Professor Gregg D. Caruso

Gregg D. Caruso is Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Corning, Visiting Fellow at the New College of the Humanities (NCH London), and Honorary Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University. His research focuses on free will, moral responsibility, punishment, philosophy of law, jurisprudence, social and political philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, moral psychology, and neurolaw. His books include Moral Responsibility Skepticism (w/Derk Pereboom, forthcoming), Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice (2021), Just Deserts: Debating Free Will (w/Daniel C. Dennett) (2021), and Free Will and Consciousness: A Determinist Account of the Illusion of Free Will (2012)..

This event is funded by a gift from the Estate of the late Kenneth Meredith Garven.

Hybrid event

Chau Chak Wing Museum and on Zoom

In person – Limited seating available –

Light refreshments will follow the lecture

Registration is essential

When

Tuesday 2 August 2022 at 5:30 pm

Registration

Registration is essential. Click here to register via Eventbrite

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