Three Books on Free Will : Essay Review

Non peer reviewe

Control Over Believing and Doxastic Responsibility

Non peer reviewe

Consciousness and Moral Responsibility : Skeptical Challenges and Theological Reflections

Some philosophers and scientists have argued that we humans cannot be held morally responsible for anything. Invoking results of the neurosciences and the cognitive sciences, they argue that humans lack the kind of conscious control and awareness required for moral responsibility. For theological ethics and Christian theology as a whole, moral responsibility is indispensable. I will begin by outlining some empirical results that are invoked in support of moral responsibility skepticism. I will, then, examine the subsequent discussion and the question why conscious awareness is central to moral responsibility. Consciousness contributes to morally relevant control over action in multiple ways. I will briefly examine some accounts of conscious control that are resistant to the skeptical challenge. Although the empirical results might lead us to revise the degree and range of conscious control, there seems to be enough of it to ground many everyday practices of responsibility. I will conclude the article with some theological reflections.Peer reviewe

Review of The Mind and the Machine: What It Means to Be Human and Why It Matters

Review of Matthew Dickerson, The Mind and the Machine: What It Means to Be Human and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, 2011). 230 pages. Kindle edition $9.99. ISBN: 978158743272-9

Theology, Free Will, and the Skeptical Challenge from the Sciences

Given how central free will and moral responsibility are for theology, Christian theologians should not remain at the sidelines when scientists and philosophers debate recent empirical results about human agency. In this article, the core notion of free will is identified with the agent's cognitive ability to exert control over his or her actions thereby making moral responsibility possible. Then three scientifically inspired arguments for free will skepticism are outlined: the argument from eliminativism, the argument from determinism and the argument from epiphenomenalism. The remainder of the article explores novel responses to these arguments and draws some theological implications from them.Peer reviewe