LFU:online

Acquisition of thorough knowledge of action theory/ philosophy of freedom with special regard to recent biological approaches, advanced skills in systematically analyzing complex philosophical problems, training the competence in reading sophisticated English research literature.

How does agency fit into a natural world and in what sense are actions performed by natural beings free? Within traditional action theory, this question was discussed more or less exclusively with respect to those natural beings which we ourselves are: human persons. However, maybe this is a mistake – an inappropriate simplification of the problem. Isn’t it obvious that also animals do act in a broader sense of ‘acting’? Isn’t human agency just a sophisticated version of a global capacity to act, which – as a biological capacity – is possessed by both human and nonhuman organisms? According to Helen Steward, this undoubtedly is the case. In her book “A Metaphysics for Freedom”, Steward argues in favor of modifying the traditional way of questioning and offers a comprehensive survey of the answers to be given within a biological approach, which, so she believes, are superior to the answers available within traditional action theory. One of the issues to be discussed in the seminar will be whether this is true.

Intensive text reading, short presentations, discussion.

Seminar paper.

All participants are expected to read the seminar text carefully and to take an active part in the seminar by giving a short presentation and making competent contributions to the discussion.

Helen Steward: A Metaphysics for Freedom, Oxford University Press 2012.

Recommendations for further reading will be given at the first session.

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For administrative reasons we would like students who register for this course also to register for the course 202501.