Vague Hopes

If we don’t think about it too much, we are easily deluded into thinking it’s obvious and unproblematic what life after death means. We all know what it means to be alive, so surely life after death simply means that we carry on living like this on the other side of the grave. But if you think about for more than a few seconds, this quickly becomes nonsensical.

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Freedom Regained at Scientia Salon

The undeniable fact is that brains provide the material means by which conscious life is sustained. Without brains there can be no human consciousness. But it does not follow from this that we can explain all human behavior in neurological terms alone and that conscious thoughts contribute nothing to our actions. That is a much stronger claim, which goes against the evidence of experience.

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Thinking Allowed

Free will explored. Laurie Taylor talks to Julian Baggini about his latest work which considers the concept of freedom. He argues against the idea that free will is an illusion due to a combination of genes, environment and personal history. Instead he posits a sliding scale of freedom which allows for the possibility of individual agency and responsibility.

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