Summary
In the 500th edition of the programme, Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophical idea of free will.Free will - the extent to which we are free to choose our own actions - is one of the most absorbing philosophical problems, debated by almost every great thinker of the last two thousand years. In a universe apparently governed by physical laws, is it possible for individuals to be responsible for their own actions? Or are our lives simply proceeding along preordained paths? Determinism - the doctrine that every event is the inevitable consequence of what goes before - seems to suggest so.Many intellectuals have concluded that free will is logically impossible. The philosopher Baruch Spinoza regarded it as a delusion. Albert Einstein wrote: "Human beings, in their thinking, feeling and acting are not free agents but are as causally bound as the stars in their motion." But in the Enlightenment, philosophers including David Hume found ways in which free will and determinism could be reconciled. Recent scientific developments mean that this debate remains as lively today as it was in the ancient world.With: Simon BlackburnBertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of CambridgeHelen BeebeeProfessor of Philosophy at the University of BirminghamGalen StrawsonProfessor of Philosophy at the University of ReadingProducer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:46.5 | the program. Hello earlier I came to this studio in Broadcasting House and sat down in this chair. There are many other things I could have done this morning, go for a walk, write, read or stay in bed. I came here of my own free will. Or I think I did. According to some of the finest minds in philosophy, |
| 1:03.9 | free will is an illusion and everything we do is the result of processes beyond our |
| 1:08.4 | control. Can this be true and if we're not responsible for our actions can we take moral responsibility for |
| 1:14.6 | them. |
| 1:16.6 | philosophers have been arguing about these questions for a long time. |
| 1:20.9 | The Enlightenment thinker David Hume called free will the most contentious |
| 1:24.2 | question of metaphysics the most contentious science. Two hundred and fifty years |
| 1:28.8 | later the debate continues and the discoveries of neuroscience have given it new impetus. |
| 1:34.0 | With me to discuss free will are Simon Blackburn, Bertrand Russell, |
| 1:38.0 | Professor at Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, |
| 1:41.0 | Helen Beebe, Professor at the University of Birmingham, and |
| 1:46.2 | Galen Strossen Professor at Philosophy at the University of Reading. |
| 1:49.7 | Simon Blackburn, can you give us a rather fuller idea of what's meant by free will? |
| 1:55.1 | Well of course that's partly contentious because different philosophers will try |
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