The Changing Nature of Free Will

Saturday, April 25, 2015
2:30-4:30 pm

Past Event

Central to Eastern and Western philosophical and theological traditions, the notion of free will, once confined to discussions of human agency, can find application in understanding a broader set of phenomena. How are advances in genetics and neuroscience influencing our concept of voluntary, individual choice, and what are the implications for jurisprudence? How does the indeterminacy of quantum mechanics impact the notion of choice? To what extent are free will and determinism categorically different levels of reality?

Participants:

Akeel Bilgrami

Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University

Akeel Bilgrami got a B.A in English Literature from Elphinstone College, Bombay University and went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar where he read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He has a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He is the Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, where he is also a… read more »

Luis Cabral

Paganelli-Bull Professor of Economics and International Business, Stern School of Business, NYU

A native of Portugal, Luís Cabral is a graduate of Stanford University (PhD, Economics, 1989). He taught at the London Business School, Berkeley, Yale, NYU and IESE. He is currently the Paganelli-Bull Professor of Economics and International Business at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Cabral’s research is focused on the dynamics of firm competition, both… read more »

Brigitte Kahl

Professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary in New York

Brigitte Kahl is a Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York and an Associate Professor at the Religion Department of Columbia University. A biblical scholar with strong inter-disciplinary and ecological leanings, she explores scriptural texts and topics in their ancient contexts and interpretational trajectories throughout history, analyzing both “mainline” and “heretic”… read more »

Kenneth T. Kishida

Research Scientist, Computational Psychiatry Unit, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute

Kenneth T. Kishida is a Research Scientist in the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. He investigates neurobiological processes underlying human choice behavior using computational approaches paired with measurements of behavior and associated neural activity. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Genetics at the University of California, Davis, but also studied… read more »

Simon Kochen

Professor emeritus and Senior Research Scientist, Mathematics Department, Princeton University

Simon Kochen is Professor emeritus and Senior Research Scientist in the Mathematics Department of Princeton University. Kochen received his Ph.D. in 1959 from Princeton University. He was a professor at Cornell University from 1960 to 1967. After a year at the Institute for Advanced Study, he joined the Princeton Mathematics Department in 1968. Kochen’s interests… read more »

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