Join us in Auerbach Hall 321 at the University of Hartford or online this Wednesday, April 9, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., for our next meeting of the University of Hartford Philosophy Club as Clark Sexton presents on the question of free will vs. determinism.
To join meeting online, click here.
Here is Clark’s outline: Free Will Vs. Determinism
A Little Philosophical Background: Metaphysics
- Common Definitions
- Common Misconceptions About Metaphysics
- Philosophers' Views of Metaphysics
- A Brief Description of Metaphysics
V.An Intuitive Beginnning
VI.A Bit of Metaphysics
VII.Back to Freedom and Choices
VIII.Not So Fast: Threats to Free Will
IX.Pseudo-Threats to Free Will
X.Real Threats to Free Will
XI.Determinis
- Determinism: Physical/Causal
- Determinism: Theological
XII.Indeterminism
XIII.Free Will
XIV.Compatibilism
XV.Chance
XVI.Free Will and Metaphysics
Clark Sexton of Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, earned doctorates both in Computer Science from Kansas State University and in Philosophy from the University of Kansas. His research in Computer Science was in Artificial Intelligence, and, more specifically, Natural Language Processing. For this research, he implemented an NLP system that could parse a wide range of syntactic structures of English, perform type-checking to determine whether a sentence is meaningful, and disambiguate certain ambiguous expressions.
Clark continued his exploration of the relations of meanings in his dissertation in Philosophy, in which he presented a brief history of the analytic/synthetic distinction, replied to Quine's objections, and provided and presented arguments for his own account of the distinction.
The University of Hartford Philosophy Club has an informal, jovial atmosphere. It is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.
Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.
Come and go as you wish. Bring friends. Suggest topics and activities. Take over the club! It belongs to you! Just show up! - Brian Skelly bskelly@hartford.edu 413-273-2273