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Neuroscientists often consider free will to be an illusion. Contrary to this hypothesis, the contributions to this volume show that recent developments in neuroscience can also support the existence of free will. Firstly, the possibility of intentional consciousness is studied. Secondly, Libet’s experiments are discussed from this new perspective. Thirdly, the relationship between free will, causality and language is analyzed. This approach suggests that language grants the human brain a possibility to articulate a meaningful personal life. Therefore, human beings can escape strict biological determinism.

Free will and determinism. --- Causation. --- Neurosciences. --- Neural sciences --- Neurological sciences --- Neuroscience --- Medical sciences --- Nervous system --- Causality --- Cause and effect --- Effect and cause --- Final cause --- Beginning --- God --- Metaphysics --- Philosophy --- Necessity (Philosophy) --- Teleology --- Compatibilism --- Determinism and free will --- Determinism and indeterminism --- Free agency --- Freedom and determinism --- Freedom of the will --- Indeterminism --- Liberty of the will --- Determinism (Philosophy) --- Philosophy of mind

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What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers—free will and religion—are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity, authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then, is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories of the human? Automatic Religion explores an unlikely series of episodes from the end of the nineteenth century, when crucial ideas related to automatism and, in a different realm, the study of religion were both being born. Paul Christopher Johnson draws on years of archival and ethnographic research in Brazil and France to explore the crucial boundaries being drawn at the time between humans, “nearhumans,” and automata. As agency came to take on a more central place in the philosophical, moral, and legal traditions of the West, certain classes of people were excluded as less-than-human. Tracking the circulation of ideas across the Atlantic, Johnson tests those boundaries, revealing how they were constructed on largely gendered and racial foundations. In the process, he reanimates one of the most mysterious and yet foundational questions in trans-Atlantic thought: what is agency?

Religion --- Philosophical anthropology. --- Human beings. --- Free will and determinism. --- Automatism. --- Agent (Philosophy) --- Act (Philosophy) --- Philosophy. --- Brazil --- brazil, brazilian, france, french, religion, religious studies, history, historical, humanity, humans, nonhumans, free will, freedom, 19th century, automatism, ethnography, archival research, philosophy, morality, ethics, morals, ethical, legalism, legal, gender, race, anthropology, determinism, case study, culture, agency, action, ability, understanding. --- Action (Philosophy) --- Philosophy --- Agency (Philosophy) --- Agents --- Person (Philosophy) --- Consciousness --- Psychomotor disorders --- Subconsciousness --- Compatibilism --- Determinism and free will --- Determinism and indeterminism --- Free agency --- Freedom and determinism --- Freedom of the will --- Indeterminism --- Liberty of the will --- Determinism (Philosophy) --- Homo sapiens --- Human race --- Humanity (Human beings) --- Humankind --- Humans --- Man --- Mankind --- People --- Hominids --- Persons --- Anthropology, Philosophical --- Man (Philosophy) --- Civilization --- Life --- Ontology --- Humanism --- Philosophy of mind --- al-Barāzīl --- Barāzīl --- Brasil --- Brasile --- Brasilia --- Brasilië --- Brasilien --- Brazili --- Brazili Federativlă Respubliki --- Brazilia --- Brazilië --- Brazilii︠a︡ --- Brazilii︠a︡ Federativ Respublikaḣy --- Braziliya --- Braziliya Federativ Respublikası --- Brazilská federativní republika --- Brazylia --- Brésil --- Burajiru --- Federale Republiek van Brasilië --- Federative Republic of Brazil --- Federativna republika Brazil --- Federativna republika Brazilii︠a︡ --- Federat︠s︡iėm Respublikė Brazil --- Fedėratyŭnai︠a︡ Rėspublika Brazilii︠a︡ --- Gweriniaeth Ffederal Brasil --- Pa-hsi --- Pa-se --- Pa-se Liân-pang Kiōng-hô-kok --- Pederatibong Republika sa Brasil --- Pindorama --- República Federal del Brasil --- Republica Federale di u Brasile --- Republica Federativa del Brazil --- República Federativa do Brasil --- Rèpublica fèdèrativa du Brèsil --- Republik Kevreel Brazil --- République fédérative du Brésil --- Tantasqa Republika Wrasil --- Tetã Pindorama --- Wrasil --- Федэратыўная Рэспубліка Бразілія --- Федеративна република Бразилия --- Федерациэм Республикэ Бразил --- Бразил --- Бразили --- Бразили Федеративлă Республики --- Бразилия --- Бразилия Федератив Республикаhы --- Бразілія --- البرازيل --- برازيل --- ブラジル