Hosted by the Mita Philosophical Society
Event Date
Event Venue
Workshop: "Am I Free?—An In-Depth Discussion between Takuo Aoyama and Yoshinori Saito"
2022/08/17
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Date and Time | Friday, September 23, 2022, 1:00 PM–3:30 PM |
Location | Online |
Eligibility |
Open to everyone. *Pre-registration is required.
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Speakers | Takuo Aoyama (Kyoto University), Yoshinori Saito (Keio University) |
Moderator | Tatsuya Kashiwabata (Keio University) |
Organizer | Mita Philosophical Society |
Overview:
Am I free? On the one hand, freedom seems to form the very foundation of our existence and society. On the other, it is considered a kind of illusion with no place in a causally determined physical world. The contemporary philosophical debate surrounding such freedom is becoming increasingly intricate, and its future course is difficult to foresee.
In this context, Takuo Aoyama, in his book "Time and Free Will: Does Freedom Exist?" (2016, Chikuma Shobo), shed new light on various forms of freedom—such as compatibilist freedom, free will, unfreedom (and non-freedom)—by presenting the "branching problem," an original model that delves into the issues of time and modality. Meanwhile, Yoshinori Saito, in "I May Be Free: The Metaphysics of 'Freedom as Responsibility'" (2018, Keio University Press), developed a unique philosophy of life by applying the theory of "grounding" (Grundlegung), inherited by Meinong, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty, to the mind-body problem. Building on this foundation, he presented the idea of freedom as "pure possibility," drawing inspiration from Heidegger's "analysis of death and conscience" and Levinas's philosophy of the "Other."
In this workshop, these two philosophers, whose backgrounds and approaches may at first seem entirely different, will attempt to delve deeper into the common problem of freedom by engaging in a cumulative discussion. The session will be moderated by Tatsuya Kashiwabata, who is well-versed in the debate on freedom, particularly within analytic philosophy. (He co-supervised the collection "Free Will: Skinner/Dennett/Libet" (2020, Iwanami Shoten) with Aoyama and also co-authored its introduction).
The workshop will begin with 40-minute presentations by Saito and Aoyama, respectively. After a break, the latter half of the session will be a 40-minute intensive discussion between Saito and Aoyama, moderated by Kashiwabata.