CCT Associate Director Tom Crisp interviews Tim O’Connor (Professor of Philosophy, Indiana University) on neuroscience and human freedom, the nature of human persons, and the existential problem of evil in The Brothers Karamazov.
Tim O’Connor (Indiana University) explains recent neuroscientific experimentation by Benjamin Libet, which suggests that our actions are not free, but physically determined by brain processes.
Tim O’Connor (Indiana University) provides an interpretation of Libet’s neuroscientific research that is consistent with human freedom; he suggests that Libet experiments do not prove physical determinism.
Tim O’Connor (Indiana University) discusses his “Emergent Individuals” view of the human person: that we are material organisms with psychological characteristics that cannot be explained by appealing solely to physics or biology.
Tim O’Connor (Indiana University) discusses his “Emergent Individuals” view of the human person in light of the Christian doctrine of an intermediate state between death and the resurrection.
Tim O’Connor (Indiana University) discusses his “Emergent Individuals” view of the human person in light of the problem of personal identity and the Christian doctrine of resurrection.
Tim O’Connor (Indiana University) reflects on the psychological, existential nature of the problem of evil, and looks to Dostoevsky’s Father Zossima of The Brothers Karamazov for an answer.
Tim O’Connor (Indiana University) considers Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor” as an expression of the problem of evil.