Venue: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Johannessaal, Dr. Ignaz Seipel
Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, Austria, and online
Organiser: Dr. Anne Sophie Meincke (University of Vienna & Young Academy
of the Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Description:
Humans – members of the biological species homo sapiens – are products
of evolution. Therefore, if we have free will, it is plausible to assume
that our free will is also a product of evolution. But do we actually
have free will? Is it – at least sometimes – up to us what we decide to
do? Strikingly, philosophers have long ignored biology when it comes to
answering these questions. Instead, they have quibbled about whether and
how free will might fit into a supposedly deterministic universe as
studied by (classical) physics. Only recently has the debate about free
will begun to open up to biological considerations – so far, however,
mostly with sceptical results. We are told that it is not we but our
brains that decide what we want and how we act, or that our genes
determine our decisions, or other biological factors beyond our control.
In this Young Academy Distinguished Lecture, Alfred R. Mele, Professor
of Philosophy at Florida State University, and Anne Sophie Meincke,
member of the Young Academy and philosopher at the University of Vienna,
will take an overdue fresh look at the relationship between free will
and biology: Can biology help us understand and perhaps even defend free
will? If so, how? If not, why not? To make progress here, it is
necessary to critically analyse the arguments put forward against free
will in the name of biology. Do these sceptical arguments really show
what they claim to show? If not, then there is room to explore what
constructive role biology could play in an attempt to defend free will
against scepticism. Perhaps the common conception of a biological
organism as some kind of deterministic machine is not accurate after
all? How should we understand organisms instead? What biological
function could free will serve? Taking evolution seriously also suggests
considering the possibility that free will may not be a privilege of
human organisms.
First Lecture: Alfred R. Mele: “Free Will and Neurobiology”
Second Lecture: Anne Sophie Meincke: “Free Will Is Real and Biology
Helps Us Understand Why”
The Young Academy Distinguished Lecture Series brings cutting-edge
scientific topics to the public, presented by distinguished experts and
members of the Young Academy. The present two lectures kick off the
interdisciplinary conference “Free Will: New Perspectives from
Philosophy, Biology and Neuroscience”, organised by Anne Sophie Meincke
and taking place at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on 11 and 12 June
2025, see
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/veranstaltung/der-freie-wille-im-fokus-von-philosophie-biologie-und-neurowissenschaft
.
More information (including the programme with abstracts of the
lectures) is to be found at
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/veranstaltung/willensfreiheit-und-biologie.
To attend in person, please register free of charge at
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/veranstaltungen/anmeldung/young-academy-distinguished-lecture-series
On-site childcare is available upon request.
Or follow the event via live stream at
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/veranstaltungen/live
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