| Author | : Richard Oerton |
| Publisher | : Troubador Publishing Ltd |
| Total Pages | : 155 |
| Release | : 2018-11-08 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : 1785897705 |
Following on from the success of The Nonsense of Free Will, The Cruelty of Free Will takes up where the earlier book left off. It sets to answer two questions - why - and how - does free will belief persist so stubbornly?
| Author | : Richard Oerton |
| Publisher | : Troubador Publishing Ltd |
| Total Pages | : 176 |
| Release | : 2018-11-30 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : 1780887442 |
Did Myra Hindley deserve to be punished? Does any criminal? Is belief in free will an essential foundation for morality, or an excuse for unwarranted cruelty? Is free will a myth and, if so, can we let go of it?
| Author | : Laura W. Ekstrom |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
| Total Pages | : 253 |
| Release | : 2021-02-23 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 0197556434 |
For many of us, the question of whether or not God exists is one of the most perplexing and profound questions of our lives, and numerous philosophers and theologians have debated it for centuries. Laura Ekstrom here takes a new look at the issue of God's existence by examining it against the reality of human suffering, bringing to the fore contentious presuppositions concerning agency and value at the core of the matter. When we survey the world, we observe an enormous amount of pain, including virtually unspeakable kinds of maltreatment and agony, many instances of which seem patently unfair, unearned, and pointless. This book argues that, in light of these observations, it is reasonable to conclude that God does not exist. The book unravels the extent and power of arguments from evil. Ekstrom provides a close investigation of a largely overlooked claim at the heart of major free-will-based responses to such arguments, namely that free will is worth it: sufficiently valuable to serve as the good that provides a God-justifying reason for permitting evil in the world. Through fresh examinations of traditional theodicies, Ekstrom develops an alternative line called divine intimacy theodicy, and makes an extended case for rejecting skeptical theism. The book takes up an argument from evil concerning a traditional doctrine of hell, which reveals a number of compelling issues concerning fault, agency, and blameworthiness. In response to recent work contending that the problem of evil is toothless because God is indifferent to human beings, Ekstrom defends the essential perfect moral goodness of God. She further tackles the question of whether or not it is possible to live a religious life as an agnostic or as an atheist. Through rigorous reflection, with deep respect for religious thought and experience, and with sensitivity to the range and kinds of suffering so many endure, Ekstrom firmly advances discussion of the problem of evil and paves the way for further scholarship in the philosophy of religion.
| Author | : Laura W. Ekstrom |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press, USA |
| Total Pages | : 253 |
| Release | : 2021-03-09 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : 0197556418 |
"This book focuses on arguments from suffering against the existence of God and on a variety of issues concerning agency and value that they bring out. The central aim is to show the extent and power of arguments from evil. The book provides a close investigation of an under-defended claim at the heart of the major free-will-based responses to such arguments, namely that free will is sufficiently valuable to serve as the good, or prominently among the goods, that provides a God-justifying reason for permitting evil in our world. Offering a fresh examination of traditional theodicies, it also develops an alternative line the author calls a divine intimacy theodicy. It makes an extended case for rejection of the position of skeptical theism. The book expands upon an argument from evil concerning a traditional doctrine of hell, which reveals a number of interesting issues concerning fault, agency, and blameworthiness. In response to recent work contending that the problem of evil is defanged since God's baseline attitude toward human beings is indifference, the book defends the essential perfect moral goodness of God. Finally it takes up the question of whether or not it makes sense to live a religious life as an agnostic or as an atheist"--
| Author | : MR George Ortega |
| Publisher | : George Ortega |
| Total Pages | : 181 |
| Release | : 2011-12-02 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : |
Note: The author, a cognitive-behavioral psychologist, unabashedly leads the reader through extensive review of the work's major themes and concepts. George Ortega's brilliant and compelling Exploring the Illusion of Free Will is likely to become an historic document. Earlier attempts by a relatively few authors have failed to convince the world that free will is an illusion. However, Ortega's edited transcript of the first 18 episodes of his pioneering Exploring the Illusion of Free Will weekly television series seems likely to succeed. Table of Contents Introduction 2 1. How I Came to See My Causal Will 6 2. Proving Causal Will in Real Time 14 3. Morality Within a Causal Will Perspective 21 4. What it All Means 29 5. We Do Not "Experience" Free Will 37 6. How the Hedonic Imperative Makes Free Will Impossible 46 7. How the Unsolicited Participation of the Unconscious Makes Free Will Impossible 54 8. Asking When a Child Gains it Illuminates the Incoherence of the Concept "Free Will" 63 9. Overcoming our Reluctance to Overcome the Illusion of Free Will 7110. Why Change as the Basic Universal Process Makes Free Will Impossible 81 11. The Absurdity of Varying Degrees of Free Will 9112. Why the Concept of Free Will is Incoherent 10013. Overcoming Blame, Guilt, Envy and Arrogance by Overcoming the Illusion of Free Will 10814. Why Both Causality and Randomness Make Free Will Impossible 11715. Why Frankfurt's "Second Order Desires" Do Not Allow for a Free Will 12716. Overcoming the Illusion of Free Will as an Evolutionary Leap in Human Consciousness 13717. Revitalizing Religion through Transcending the Illusion of Free Will 14718. Why Humans Cannot Circumvent Natural Law to Gain a Free WillIntroduction 156From the Introduction - For we who appreciate speedily arriving at the heart of a matter, here's how to disprove any free will argument in two easy steps: 1. Ask the free will believer to give an example of a choice they consider to be freely willed. 2. Ask the free will believer to say whether or not that choice was caused. Congratulations; you've just succeeded. If the free will believer says the choice was caused, the ensuing causal regression makes free will impossible. If the free will believer says the choice was uncaused, that would mean the choice was random. Random thoughts are clearly not what we mean when we refer to a choice as freely willed. You can easily apply this two-step refutation to any, and all, free will arguments. That's the long and short of it; now the details.From the author: Because of the significance of this very likely world-changing book, I've chosen to, as much as possible and practical, not financially profit from it's sale. For my book to be listed on Amazon.com, Amazon's CreateSpace publishing service requires that I set my list price above $7.03, so I've set it to $7.04. I've also published a FREE online, downloadable, edition at Google Books and The Internet Archive. I'd like to publish for Kindle soon, and Amazon's policy requires that authors charge at least 99 cents for the Kindle edition. However, because I've contributed the online edition to the public domain, I'll hopefully be able to publish a free Kindle edition through one of the Internet libraries.
| Author | : Abigail Perdue |
| Publisher | : Purdue University Press |
| Total Pages | : 255 |
| Release | : 2014 |
| Genre | : Law |
| ISBN | : 1557536333 |
A collaboration between an attorney and an animal protection advocate, this work utilizes the extremely controversial and high-profile "crush video" case, US v. Stevens, to explore how American society attempts to balance the protection of free speech and the prevention of animal cruelty. Starting from the detailed case study of a single prominent ruling, the authors provide a masterful survey of important issues facing society in the area of animal welfare. The Stevens case included various "hot topic" elements connected to the role of government as arbiter of public morality, including judicial attitudes to sexual deviance and dogfighting. Because it is one of only two animal rights cases that the US Supreme Court has handled, and the only case discussing the competing interests of free speech and animal cruelty, it will be an important topic for discussion in constitutional and animal law courses for decades to come. The Stevens case arose from the first conviction under 18 USC § 48 (Section 48), a federal law enacted in 1999, which criminalized the creation, sale, and/or possession of certain depictions of animal cruelty. The US Congress intended Section 48 to end the creation and interstate trafficking of depictions of animal cruelty in which animals are abused or even killed for entertainment's sake. Proponents of Section 48 predicted that countless benefits to both humans and animals would flow from its enforcement. Opponents of the law argued that it was too far-reaching and would stifle protected speech. Critics of Section 48 appeared to have prevailed when the US Supreme Court struck the law down as unconstitutionally overbroad. Although a law tailored to address the Supreme Court's concerns was quickly enacted, the free speech/animal cruelty controversy is far from over.
| Author | : James B. Miles |
| Publisher | : Troubador Publishing Ltd |
| Total Pages | : 312 |
| Release | : 2018-10-02 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : 1784628328 |
Poverty is not accident, but design. We are not all equal before the law. And the central message of contemporary ethics is that only some people matter.
| Author | : Ingvar Johansson |
| Publisher | : BoD – Books on Demand |
| Total Pages | : 70 |
| Release | : 2023-03-17 |
| Genre | : Language Arts & Disciplines |
| ISBN | : 3757826388 |
The book Free Will and Evolution defends the old notion of free will, according to which such a will is incompatible with determinism and not identical with mere indeterminism. The defense is made from an entirely secular evolutionary perspective. The theory of evolution - properly considered - is argued to be fully compatible with a belief in in a little bit of free will. Moreover, it is claimed that a complete denial normally contains a kind of contradiction. Not a logical contradiction, but a so-called performative contradiction. The denial argued for contradicts the very existence of argumentative discourses.
| Author | : Scott Bergstrom |
| Publisher | : Feiwel & Friends |
| Total Pages | : 381 |
| Release | : 2017-02-07 |
| Genre | : Young Adult Fiction |
| ISBN | : 1250108179 |
The Cruelty is an action-packed young adult thriller (optioned for film by Jerry Bruckheimer) about a girl who must train as an assassin to deal with the gangsters who have kidnapped her father. Gwendolyn's father kept his life a secret from her. When he goes missing, she's plunged into a world of assassins, spies, and criminal masterminds. When Gwendolyn Bloom’s father vanishes, she sets off on a journey she never bargained for. Traveling under a new identity, she uncovers a disturbing truth: to bring her father back alive, she must become every bit as cruel as the men holding him captive. This suspensful debut from Scott Bergstrom features a strong female character and nonstop, cinematic action. Praise for The Cruelty: "Liam Neeson’s 2008 film Taken concerned a spy who engages in mass mayhem while attempting to recover his kidnapped daughter. Bergstrom reverses this plot in his violent, well-crafted first novel. Seventeen-year-old gymnast Gwendolyn Bloom doesn’t learn that her father is a genuine spy?and not merely an overworked State Department employee?until after he is kidnapped by international gangsters, and the CIA makes little attempt to recover him . . . A grim, fast- paced tale." —Publishers Weekly "[T]his debut novel is relentlessly paced, full of global sets, slick action...with a grim, ass-kicking antihero." —Booklist The Cruelty is a nominee for the 2018 Edgar Award for best Young Adult book.
