Kastner, Ruth (2016) The Born Rule and Free Will. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In the libertarian ``agent causation'' view of free will, free choices are attributable only to the choosing agent, as opposed to a specific cause or causes outside the agent. An often-repeated claim in the philosophical literature on free will is that agent causation necessarily implies lawlessness, and is therefore ``antiscientific." That claim is critiqued and it is argued, on the contrary, that the volitional powers of a free agent need not be viewed as anomic, specifically with regard to the quantum statistical law (the Born Rule). Assumptions about the role and nature of causation, taken as bearing on volitional agency, are examined and found inadequate to the task. Finally, it is suggested that quantum theory may constitute precisely the sort of theory required for a nomic grounding of libertarian free will.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Kastner, Ruth rkastner@umd.edu
Additional Information:	Contribution to an edited collection by C. de Ronde et al
Keywords:	Free will; agent causation; quantum theory; indeterminism; Born Rule
Subjects:	General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User:	Dr. Ruth Kastner
Date Deposited:	01 Feb 2016 14:44
Last Modified:	01 Feb 2016 14:44
Item ID:	11893
Subjects:	General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date:	1 February 2016
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11893

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