Human agency and neural causes
Subtitle: philosophy of action and the neuroscience of voluntary agency
By: J.D. Runyan, Indiana Wesleyan University, USA
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9781137329486
Subjects: Cognitive neuroscience; Free will and determinism; Agent (Philosophy); Causation; Psychological aspects
Description: In exploring whether our neuroscientific discoveries are consistent with the idea we are voluntary agents, this text presents a neuroscientifically-informed emergentist account of human agency. In contrast with the assumptions that currently shape neuropsychological research on voluntary agency, J.D. Runyan presents a broadly-conceived Aristotelian account of voluntary agency grounded in our everyday thought about our conduct.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Libet-style experiments and volitions; title: The need for an analysis of human agency; title: An Aristotelian account of human agency; title: Compatibilist concerns; title: Choices and voluntary conduct; title: Neuronal mechanisms and voluntary conduct; title: A metaphysical framework : voluntary agency, emergence and downward causation.