Philosophy & What Matters. Ep. 14: Free Will with Brian Garrett (ANU)
Channel: Jeremiah Joven Joaquin
Date: 05/10/2020

"Philosophy & What Matters" deals with questions that matter to us from a philosophical point of view.

We believe that we act freely most of the time. When we decide the person to love, the career to pursue, and how to live our lives, we have a sense that we are doing all these things freely and voluntarily. Since the beginning of philosophy, however, our notion of free will has been called into question. On the one hand, if everything is a matter of fate, as in F-A-T-E, then how can we be free? Likewise, how can we be free if everything is determined by the history of the universe and the laws of nature? Our notion of free will implies other concepts that matter to us: e.g. the concepts of moral responsibility and legal accountability. What happens to those things if we don’t have free will?  

Joining us to discuss the nature of free will is my dearest friend, Brian Garrett, Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, and the author of my favourite metaphysics book, What is this thing called metaphysics?

The "Philosophy & What Matters" website can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/jeremiahjovenjoaquin/philosophy-what-matters.