Free Will & Determinism Books - Page 12

Synchronicity: Science, Myth, and the Trickster

Allan Combs, Mark Holland

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The return of human meaning to the cosmos 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I read the first edition of this book years ago and the concepts in it have haunted me ever since. Then, I bought my own copy of this second edition and found that the ideas contained in it had lost none of their power and were every bit as profound as I had remembered.

Briefly, this book deals with the concept of synchronicity or meaningful coincidence. It deals with it on two levels, the level of science and the level of myth. Indeed, it is shown that synchronistic events in themselves demonstrate the interpenetration of matter (the realm of science) and mind (the realm of myth.) Synchronicity is shown to leap the gap between not only the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind, but between the world of mind and the world objective events. In this way it corresponds very well to the myth of Hermes, the god of boundaries, and the messenger between the world of the gods and the world of men.

The greatest strength of this book over other treatments of the topic is the clear and up-to-date manner that it addresses the possible scientific explanations of synchronicity. It draws primarily from the world of the new physics. Here is an extremely clear explanation of Bohm's theories on a holographic universe with explicate (physical, day-to-day) and implicate (hidden and fundamental) orders. In spite of the references to the modern world of subatomic physics, it struck me that this sounds remarkably like the hidden currents of the cosmos that occultists have always alluded to. The pattern based theories of Sheldrake, Laszlo, and Chester are also examined and compared. Indeed, the concepts of morphic fields and resonance seem to uncannily resemble the old magical principles of sympathy and correspondence between our own world and the world of archetypes. Indeed, it is shown that a balanced mind (both hemispheres at the same frequency) in deep meditation or prayer may be able to "range" the implicate order and bring about increased instances of synchronicity. Since it is suggested that synchronicity is the real basis for all ESP phenomena ( telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis, etc.) it could be said that this is an effective explanation for the concept of sympathetic magic.

The use of the concept of the mythological trickster is especially appropriate and effective. Many times synchronistic coincidences seem to exist for no other reason that to shatter our preconceived and ossified concepts of the universe. That was also the function of Hermes/ Mercurius/ Coyote in mythology. It is also the function of this book in a world still mired in the dogma of materialistic scientism.

Are We Hardwired?: The Role of Genes in Human Behavior

William R. Clark, Michael Grunstein

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Books such as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene have aroused fierce controversy by arguing for the powerful influence of genes on human behavior. But are we entirely at the mercy of our chromosomes? In Are We Hardwired?, scientists William R. Clark and Michael Grunstein say the answer is both yes--and no.
The power and fascination of Are We Hardwired? lie in their explanation of that deceptively simple answer. Using eye-opening examples of genetically identical twins who, though raised in different families, have had remarkably parallel lives, the authors show that indeed roughly half of human behavior can be accounted for by DNA. But the picture is quite complicated. Clark and Grunstein take us on a tour of modern genetics and behavioral science, revealing that few elements of behavior depend upon a single gene; complexes of genes, often across chromosomes, drive most of our heredity-based actions. To illustrate this point, they examine the genetic basis, and quirks, of individual behavioral traits--including aggression, sexuality, mental function, eating disorders, alcoholism, and drug abuse. They show that genes and environment are not opposing forces; heredity shapes how we interpret our surroundings, which in turn changes the very structure of our brain. Clearly we are not simply puppets of either influence. Perhaps most interesting, the book suggests that the source of our ability to choose, to act unexpectedly, may lie in the chaos principle: the most minute differences during activation of a single neuron may lead to utterly unpredictable actions.
This masterful account of the nature-nurture controversy--at once provocative and informative--answers some of our oldest questions in unexpected new ways

The Bondage of the Will: A new translation of De servo arbitrio (1525) Martin Luther's reply to Erasmus of Rotterdam

Martin Luther

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Thinking Clearly About Death, 2nd Ed. (Hackett Publishing)

Jay F. Rosenberg

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Editorial Review:

Jay Rosenberg's penetrating and persuasively argued analysis of the central metaphysical and moral questions pertaining to death has been updated and revised to expand and deepen several of its key arguments and to address conceptual developments of the past fifteen years. Among the topics discussed are: Life After Death; The Limits of Theorizing; The Limits of Imagination; Death and Personhood Values and Rights; 'Mercy Killing'; Prolonging Life; 'Rational Suicide' and One's Own Death. Rosenberg's prose is lucid, lively, thoroughly absorbing, and accessible to introductory-level readers. Essential reading for anyone interested in reflecting on this engaging topic. Jay F. Rosenberg is Taylor Grandy Professor of Philosophy, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Apology of Socrates and Crito

Plato

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Skate's Take 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Huh huh! Play Doh! Ah ha ha ha ha! No, but seriously, this was a very well written tale. I especially enjoyed the details surrounding the controversy about Socrates' teachings. I reccomend this book to anyone who has a laptop and is planning to sit on the john all day. And if you don't have a laptop,TRY METAMUCIL - never fails! Well, I'm SKATE, and that's my TAKE!

Fairness, Responsibility, and Welfare

Marc Fleurbaey

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Editorial Review:

What is a fair distribution of resources and other goods when individuals are partly responsible for their achievements? This book develops a theory of fairness incorporating a concern for personal responsibility, opportunities and freedom. With a critical perspective, it makes accessible the recent developments in economics and philosophy that define social justice in terms of equal opportunities. It also proposes new perspectives and original ideas. The book separates mathematical sections from the rest of the text, so that the main concepts and ideas are easily accessible to non-technical readers.
It is often thought that responsibility is a complex notion, but this monograph proposes a simple analytical framework that makes it possible to disentangle the different concepts of fairness that deal with neutralizing inequalities for which the individuals are not held responsible, rewarding their effort, respecting their choices, or staying neutral with respect to their responsibility sphere. It dwells on paradoxes and impossibilities only as a way to highlight important ethical options and always proposes solutions and reasonable compromises among the conflicting values surrounding equality and responsibility.
The theory is able to incorporate disincentive problems and is illustrated in the examination of applied policy issues such as: income redistribution when individuals may be held responsible for their choices of labor supply or education; social and private insurance when individuals may be held responsible for their risky lifestyle; second chance policies; the measurement of inequality of opportunities and social mobility.

You Can Change Your Destiny

John Osteen

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Reading Metaphysics: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary (Reading Philosophy)

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Editorial Review:

This collection brings together key contemporary texts in metaphysics and features an interactive commentary which helps readers engage the texts critically and to use them to develop their own views.

• Each text is followed by a detailed commentary, setting it in context
  
• Includes questions designed to help readers think hard about what the author is saying and why, to think of objections, and to formulate his or her own views
  
• Aims to improve the reader’s ability to engage critically with philosophical texts, and to use them as a springboard for philosophical thought and writing
  
• Introduces readers to the perennial problems of metaphysics and the ways that different analytic philosophers have approached them

The Significance of Free Will

Robert Kane

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Kane Presents the Most Promising Defense of Libertarianism 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Robert Kane ably defends incompatibilism and proffers his own theory of libertarian agency that avoids the Scylla of noncausalism and the Charybdis of agent-causalism. Kane presents a causal-indeterminist theory of free action that makes use of work in contemporary physics and harmonizes with the dominant theory of action today--viz., the causal theory of action. His theory is compatible with a variety of physicalist theories of the mind and is one of the best candidates out there for a naturalized libertarian theory of free agency. There are drawbacks to his theory, however. Exploiting work in quantum mechanics to defend an incompatibilist theory of free action is not uncontroversial, and Kane seems sensitive to this fact. Overall, however, Kane does a first-rate job of presenting and defending his views while explaining the theories he holds up for criticism. His work reflects a commitment to taking philosophy and science as being on a continuum, but his work never ceases to be an excellent example of how to do conceptual analysis. This volume belongs in the library of anyone doing work in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind and action. It should also be of interest to philosophers of religion, ethicists, and people doing work in moral psychology.

Editorial Review:

Robert Kane provides a critical overview of debates about free will of the past half century, relating this recent inquiry to the broader history of the free will issue and to vital currents of twentieth century thought. Kane also defends a traditional libertarian or incompatibilist view of free will (one that insists upon the incompatibility of free will and determinism), employing arguments that are both new to philosophy and that respond to contemporary developments in physics and biology, neuro science, and the cognitive and behavioral sciences.

Shadows of Reality: The Fourth Dimension in Relativity, Cubism, and Modern Thought

Tony Robbin

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Editorial Review:

In this insightful book, which is a revisionist math history as well as a revisionist art history, Tony Robbin, well known for his innovative computer visualizations of hyperspace, investigates different models of the fourth dimension and how these are applied in art and physics. Robbin explores the distinction between the slicing, or Flatland, model and the projection, or shadow, model. He compares the history of these two models and their uses and misuses in popular discussions. Robbin breaks new ground with his original argument that Picasso used the projection model to invent cubism, and that Minkowski had four-dimensional projective geometry in mind when he structured special relativity. The discussion is brought to the present with an exposition of the projection model in the most creative ideas about space in contemporary mathematics such as twisters, quasicrystals, and quantum topology. Robbin clarifies these esoteric concepts with understandable drawings and diagrams.
Robbin proposes that the powerful role of projective geometry in the development of current mathematical ideas has been long overlooked and that our attachment to the slicing model is essentially a conceptual block that hinders progress in understanding contemporary models of spacetime. He offers a fascinating review of how projective ideas are the source of some of today’s most exciting developments in art, math, physics, and computer visualization.