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Jessica Wilson conference, March 28, 2023

The Strong Emergence of Free Will

Lecture by Jessica Wilson, University of Toronto

March 28, 2023 from 4 pm to 6 pm
Collège de France
Salle Glowinsky

Co-organized by Prof. Claudine Tiercelin, Chair of Metaphysics and Philosophy of Knowledge, and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (IHPST and HiPhiMo).

Lectures are free and open to all, with no prior registration required.

A cloud of starlings in the sky. Photo Progrès /Philippe TRIAS
A cloud of starlings in the sky. Photo Progrès /Philippe TRIAS

Abstract

Metaphysically emergent phenomena synchronically depend on, yet are also to some extent autonomous from, complex lower-level physical goings-on. In my recent book, Metaphysical Emergence, I argue that there are two forms of such emergence: Weak (whereby an emergent has a proper subset of powers of its physical dependence base) and Strong (whereby an emergent has fundamentally novel powers as compared to its physical dependence base). After presenting my two schemas for emergence, I argue that free will is Strongly emergent.