Does Neuroscience Disprove Free Will? w/ Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. & Prof. James Madden

[@PhilosophyforthePeople]

Wonderful to see Dr. Jim in conversation with Fr. Gregory, two of my favorite humans! - Pat PS - this is the podcast Dr. Jim mentioned at the end. If you want more Catholic philosophy content, come check us out!

[@thirdparsonage]

I like this guy :) I'm no expert philosopher. But I love his focus on seeking to be honest about the potential for self-delusion in our motivations.

[@joelmontero9439]

Prof. Madden is really good, he always gives you food for thought

[@ThomisticInstitute]

We're glad you enjoyed the discussion! Thanks for watching and commenting, and may the Lord bless you!

[@davidiancrux]

Dr. Madden is the mannnn!

[@ThomisticInstitute]

We're so glad to have had him on the show! Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment -- may the Lord bless you!

[@gybx4094]

Kudos for being the only Christians daring to discuss these cutting edge issues. Protestants won't get anywhere near these topics. I wish I could become a Catholic, but I'm probably too old.

[@Kleithap]

I’m no expert but I don’t think there’s an age limit 😉

[@captainch6182]

There’s no age limit for coming home

[@tinag7506]

You think you're old. That's the best reason to come home and be safe.

[@carolinafine8050]

Jim is my friend from my hometown. Good guy!!

[@ThomisticInstitute]

We're so glad to have had him on the show! Thanks for watching and commenting, and may the Lord bless you!

[@marekkuczynski5749]

Our individual decision results from, inter alia, threr things: 1. Input from the situation, 2. Our cognitive history, 3. Input from our innate qualities. These three provide data on the basis of which one makes a decision. But There's more to it. Between the three-fold input, that is the data, and the decision, there is a gap to be filled by the workings of free will. It is to be accounted for in terms of the soul and is inscrutinable by natural science. The meeting point of what's in the (partially) scrutinable brain and what is in the inscrutinable soul which hosts free will. The will does not reside in the temporal.

[@matt_playzsora7654]

Extremely informative! Nice interview!

[@ThomisticInstitute]

Our pleasure! Thanks for watching, and may the Lord bless you!

[@perhael]

Thanks for this talk. I’m looking forward to Jim’s TI talk at NC state next week on problems with AI.

[@bluehand09]

I am trying to find the reference to Aristotle with regards to the professors quoting “The threat to freedom is ignorance “

[@JimCvit]

You should interview Dr. Michael Egnor about this too.

[@Hope20249]

Where in Ireland? I would love to hear your talk. God bless.

[@tfr2602]

You may consider interviewing Fr. Chad Ripperger and/or Ed Feser on this topic.

[@andrewferg8737]

The issue, as I often encounter it among American Protestants, is a failure to acknowledge the distinction between will and freedom. That is, their framing the of discourse in terms of an argument about "free will" loses this distinction and obscures the rich truth of man's relation to the Almighty.

[@wishIwuzskiing]

For those of us less familiar with the referenced sources and thinkers, it would be helpful to give a quick bio . For me I only know Hagel in reference to him influencing Marx and knowing that Marx was fiercely anti religious, going so far as to dedicate the Communist Manifesto to Satan "the first anarchist" it's an uneasy feeling to hear Hagel being used to inform this discussion. But there is probably a very good explanation.

[@DustinDWin]

If it is not simple and clear, it is not good or wholesome.

[@TheLeonhamm]

No, of course not. It demonstrates some material aspects of the actual and potential limits that both 'the will' and the concept of 'freedom' entail, not least in being human. I may want to fly, for instance, but I have no innate freedom to evolve my own wings by way of natural selection or mere fancy .. materially speaking; I do have a capacity to develop technology that may enable man to fly, or to fly better, but such technology will still impose limits on my freedom to do so (not least economically or politically); so while angels, both loyal and rebellious, may 'fly' because they take themselves lightly, my material structure is rather more liable to be grave .. or to lead there, in ordinary earth-bound experience. Keep the Faith; tell the truth, shame the devil, and let the demons shriek. God bless. ;o)

[@jesusloveyou3976]

How can I know Jesus is God? What distinguishes God from man? And how can I know a random man claiming to be God isn’t God and doesnt have a human and divine nature like we say Jesus does?

[@markbirmingham6011]

Jim Madden the ageless athlete. Comment for traction

[@TheProdigalMeowMeowMeowReturns]

@ 10:30 is Jim insinuating that a psychedelic experience of “other worlds” would automatically be delusory/illusory just in virtue of being psychedelic? Dr Jim, please forgive me if I misunderstood. I thought you had elsewhere expressed openness towards the view that psychedelics allow the brain and mind to apprehend realms it/they otherwise wouldn’t be able to (in this current embodied state, at least prior to resurrection). EDIT: To be fair, the mechanisms of “tripping” from cough syrup (DXM) are VERY different from those in psilocybin, LSD, DMT, mescaline etc

[@generalguy6211]

Will listen to it later. But I thought the Bible disproves free will anyway with predestination. If not entirely at least as much that it's irrelevant.

[@emilymatienzo5922]

Fr. Gregory, please don’t be intimidated by that German woman. Work is not the main purpose of human life; some seculars have no concept of the Sabbath rest. Remember that “Arbeit macht frei” appeared at the entrance of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps, last century. Nazis sent many religious men, in particular, to Dachau. I do hope she was not threatening you, and that you are not in any danger. Finally, no offense to your guest, but I reject the premise that there is anything valuable in studying the philosopher Nietzsche.

[@tfr2602]

I agree with you mostly about studying Nietzsche, brilliant in his way though that he was. He was a later result of the enlightenment that should be studied to see a different and influential thought, so as to counter-argue against it from a scholastic point of view, in the same way that Marx should be studied if only for polemical purposes. But it is true that sometimes philosophers can get a bit overly enamored and side-tracked as well, as it seems Jim may have, but that's ok though, it happens. Honestly this was a bit tiresome, as Aquinas already addressed everything that was presented here: Inclinations, irascible and concupiscible appetites, will and free will, reason and freedom, intellectual and sensory knowledge...and on. So does neuroscience disprove free will? Simple answer, No.