Flickers of Freedom

John Martin Fischer and the Immortality Project

Congratulations to John Martin Fischer on being awarded $5 million by the Templeton Foundation for the Immortality Project (see here for a nice write up in the Washington Post).  Between John's new project, Al Mele's $4 million Big Questions in Free Will Project and Chandra Sripada's $1.2 million The Science of Ethics Project, the contributors to Flickers of Freedom have done a great job in the past few years of securing funding for researchers to explore a number of interesting issues at the cross-roads of philosophy, theology, and science.

Parricide and Desert

Fascinating profile  in the New York Times Magazine about a man, Greg Ousley, who killed both of his parents 1993 when he was 14 years old.  He was tried as an adult and sentenced to 60 years in prison.  Since then, he has been a model inmate and graduated magna cum laude from Indiana State correspondance program.  

One of the many desert-related aspects of the story is this:  Under Indiana law, Ousley can petition for an early release based upon evidence that he is completely rehabilitated.  The prosecutor agreed to allow the process to move forward "provided that none of the victims’ next of kin — meaning Greg’s two sisters and five aunts and uncles — objected."   So in 2009, Ousley had a a chance to get out of jail at 30 years of age.  (Otherwise, he wouldn't be eligible for parole until 2019.)  All of the parents' next of kin agreed to the release except for one aunt, his mother's sister. So the prosecutor denied the appeal. Ousley says he doesn't blame her at all, he can understand it, and his only hope is that he can change her mind over the next couple of years.  

I can't think of a single retributive or desert-based theory that can accomodate this kind of practice, yet it seems to be fairly widespread.  Any thoughts or relevant theories/works that I might not be aware of?

Featured Authors at Flickers

I am writing to let the readers of the blog know that I have been working behind the scenes to launch what I hope will be a new and exciting feature here on Flickers of Freedom.  Starting in October (2012), the blog will host a "featured author" either monthly or bi-monthly (depending on how it goes!).  The authors will be posting two to three times during the week they're being featured and they have also agreed to participate in the comment threads.  To stimulate the discussion, I will also be asking a few people to be official commentators as well.  

The goal is to model Featured Authors at Flickers after the two on-line philosophy conferences I organized years ago (see OPC1 and OPC2 to get a sense for how I envision this working).  To kick things off, four Flickers of Freedom contributors have very graciously agreed to be the inaugural featured authors (see below). Down the road, I not only plan to invite senior philosophers and psychologists who don't usually contribute to this blog, but I also hope to feature some up and coming junior researchers as well.  So, if you have any suggestions concerning who you'd like to see featured, please send me an email or post your suggestion in the thread.  In the meantime, please help me spread the word through the blogosphere, the interwebs, and beyond!  So far, John Martin Fischer, Saul Smilansky, Al Mele, Dana Nelkin, and Derk Pereboom, Michael McKenna, and Bruce Waller have all agreed to play along and several others have been invited as well (see below for details).

 

Emotional Responses Survey Results (Eli Weber, guest poster)

Here is Eli's discussion of the survey results:

Thanks again to everyone who took the emotional responses survey.  Below are the cases and response data for the first 100 responses.  I’ve given a bit of analysis following each case, and there are some general remarks following that.  First, I wanted to say just a bit about what I was up to here.

Survey: Emotional Responses

Eli Weber, a graduate student at Bowling Green, has designed a three-question survey about emotional responses to past perceived injuries that ought to yield some interesting results.  Please take the survey here, and perhaps Eli will discuss the results in a few days.

CFP: Graduate Conference on Free Will

* EXTENDED DEADLINE: JULY 15, 2012*

The Philosophy Graduate Student Association (PGSA) of Florida State University is now accepting submissions for their graduate conference on free will, moral responsibility, and agency.

The conference will take place at Florida State University on September 28 and 29, 2012. Keynote speakers will be:

• Robert H. Kane, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin

• Alfred R. Mele, William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University

Those interested in submitting high quality papers related to free will, moral responsibility, or the wider notion of agency should email their submissions to fsupgsa@gmail.com. Papers addressing the relationship between scientific developments (especially in psychology, neuroscience, or physics) and free will are also welcome. Papers should fulfill the following criteria:

• Prepared for blind review

• No more than 4,000 words

• Suitable for 25-minute presentation

• Preceded by an abstract of 150-250 words

Along with the paper, please also submit a cover page with the following information:

• Presenter’s name

• Institutional affiliation

• Contact information (email address or phone number)

• Title of paper

• Abstract of the paper

• Word count

The deadline for submissions is July 15. We will notify those whose papers have been accepted by August 12.  

For questions or further information, please contact Kyle Fritz (kgf10@fsu.edu), Dan Miller (djm09@fsu.edu), or Robyn Waller (rar09h@fsu.edu).