A Neurophilosophy of Libertarian Free Will

by Peter Tse

This book offers an intellectually fierce defence of Libertarian Free Will seen from a neuroscientific and biological perspective. Tse argues that causation in living systems is dominated by non-linear goal-seeking automatic feedback loops and a continual criterial reparameterization of what will count as an adequate solution to goal fulfilment. For this reason, outcomes are neither determined nor random. That is, for each cycle, outcomes could have turned out differently than they actually did.
Humans, he argues, have two kinds of libertarian free will. One type concerns the ability to choose freely and is shared with other highly developed animals. Second-order free will, in contrast, is uniquely human, and concerns envisioning a new self, then working toward the realization of that vision over a long period of time. As such, free will is understood to be centrally realized in acts of imagining and deliberation, whether free actions follow or not.
A Neurophilosophy of Libertarian Free Will discusses these key philosophical issues considering the latest data and theories of neuroscience and will be of interest to academics, students, and anyone interested in the issue of Free Will.

345 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 25, 2024

Reviews

[Alan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this and a 2024 companion book (Free Imagination: The Deep Roots of Creativity, Freedom and Meaning, neuroscientist Peter Ulric Tse elaborates, among many other things, an evolutionary and neuroscientific explanation of free will and ethics and a refutation of competing determinist and compatibilist narratives.

I have posted an extended review of these two books at https://www.academia.edu/166197942/Re....