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Please see discussion on the talk page. | Freedom Evolves is a 2003 popular science and philosophy book by Daniel Dennett. Dennett describes the book as an installment of a life-long philosophical project, earlier parts of which were The Intentional Stance, Consciousness Explained and Elbow Room. It attempts to give an account of free will and moral responsibility which is complementary to Dennett's other views on consciousness and personhood. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
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Philosophy is a discipline or field of study involving the investigation, analysis, and development of ideas at a general, abstract, or fundamental level. ...
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Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942) is a prominent American philosopher. ...
Cover of Consciousness Explained Consciousness Explained (published 1991) is a book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett which attempts to explain how consciousness arises from interaction of physical and cognitive processes in the brain. ...
Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (1984) is a book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett, which discusses the philosophical issues of free will and determinism. ...
Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. ...
Morality in the strictest sense of the word, deals with that which is universally regarded as right or wrong. ...
Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ...
Synopsis
As in Consciousness Explained, Dennett advertises the controversial nature of his views extensively in advance. He expects hostility from those who fear that a sceptical analysis of freedom will undermine people's belief in the reality of moral considerations; he likens himself to an interfering crow who insists on telling Dumbo he doesn't really need the feather. But it appears his view of free will is not particularly original or threatening: it comes down to compatibilism with an evolutionary twist, the view that although in the strict physical sense our actions are pre-determined, we can still be free in some other important senses. The important point for a compatibilist case is exactly what senses these might be, but Dennett is not very clear about this. One possible interpretation is that if we do not consider God (or an infinitely powerful demon) or time travel, then through chaos and pseudo-randomness or quantum randomness, the future is ill-defined for all finite beings, even optimal ones. The only well-defined concepts are "expectations" by finite beings. Thus, the ability to do "otherwise" only makes sense when dealing with expectations, and not with some unknown and unknowable future. Since we certainly have the ability to do differently from what anyone expects, free will can exist. Species See text The true crows are in the genus Corvus; they are large Passerine birds. ...
For the Brooklyn, New York City, neighborhood, see DUMBO. Dumbo statue at a Toronto Disney Store location Dumbo is an animated feature, produced by Walt Disney and first released on October 23, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. ...
Compatibilism, also known as soft determinism and most famously championed by Hume, is a theory which holds that free will and determinism are compatible. ...
Dennett goes on to give altruism a similar treatment; he concludes that there is no such thing as altruism, strictly speaking, but rather certain kinds of selfish (or 'benselfish') behaviour which happen to involve helping others with only a superficial or short-term sacrifice; he explains 'benselfish' behavior as a result of evolutionary pressures producing kin selection. Altruism is either a practice or habit (in the view of many, a virtue) as well as an ethical doctrine. ...
Rational selfishness, a term generally related to Ayn Rands philosophy of Objectivism, means to seek to make yourself happy before others. ...
Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution by natural selection. ...
Kin selection was first suggested by Darwin as an explanation of the sterile castes of social insects and has later been mathematically defined by W. D. Hamilton as a mechanism for the evolution of apparently altruistic acts. ...
The views are solidly presented, if not particularly new or groundbreaking: but Dennett also suggests that adherence to high ethical standards might pay off for the individual- because if others know your behaviour is restricted in these ways, the scope for certain beneficial mutual arrangements is enhanced; this is related to game theoretical considerations: in the famous Prisoner's Dilemma, 'moral' agents who cooperate will be more successful than 'non-moral' agents who do not cooperate. Cooperation wouldn't seem to naturally arise since agents are tempted to 'defect' and restore a Nash equilibrium, which is often not the best possible solution for all involved. Some find it odd to equate ethics with handcuffs in a book concerned with explaining moral freedom. One might have expected the opposite case: that free will pays off because it makes you scarily unpredictable, and hence a person to be treated with circumspection. Dennett concludes by contemplating the possibility that people might be able to opt in or out of moral responsibility: surely, he suggests, given the benefits, they would choose to opt in. This is a fairly different morality than most moral systems which involve duties as well as rights, making opting out of it not a possibility. Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ...
Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that uses models to study interactions with formalised incentive structures (games). Unlike decision theory, which also studies formalised incentive structures, game theory encompasses decisions that are made in an environment where various players interact strategically. ...
Will the two prisoners cooperate to minimise total loss of liberty or will one of them, trusting the other to cooperate, betray him so as to go free? The prisoners dilemma is a type of non-zero-sum game (game in the sense of Game Theory). ...
In game theory, the Nash equilibrium (named after John Nash who proposed it) is a kind of optimal strategy for games involving two or more players, where no player has anything to gain by changing only ones own strategy. ...
Morality in the strictest sense of the word, deals with that which is universally regarded as right or wrong. ...
Criticism Some liken Dennett to Roger Penrose, noting a tendency to extended digressions of apparently limited relevance to the main point of the book (An example being the exposition of Conway's game of Life by Dennet); but one of these is among the best parts of the book: a splendidly clear and convincing sceptical analysis of the famous experiments carried out by Benjamin Libet. Sir Roger Penrose OM, FRS (born August 8, 1931) is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. ...
John Horton Conway (born December 26, 1937, Liverpool, England) is a prolific mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. ...
Gosper Glider Gun creating gliders. The Game of Life is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. ...
Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to us. ...
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