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Few concepts are more ingrained in the collective Western psyche than free will. While there is considerable disagreement among philosophers about how the term free will should be best understood. The belief that we can (at least sometimes) make decisions and perform actions that are free from the physical constraints of our biology and environment is a pervasive Western assumption. Yet, not only is there no evidential support for such a capacity, the latest research about how the brain functions appears to point in the opposite direction. New discoveries increasingly demonstrate the many ways in which humans are subject to influences well beyond the control of the conscious self. Given that our Western sensibilities generally take free will to be the linchpin upon which all moral obligations depend (Kant, 1785), it is unsurprising that many people feel threatened by the prospect that, despite its intuitive appeal, free will may be an illusion. In the past, much of the concern surrounding free will scepticism was the more or less speculative worry that widespread acceptance of such scepticism would lead to the unravelling of our moral fabric. Recently this worry has been given empirical support. New findings from social psychology indicate that diminished belief in free will is associated with reduced prosocial tendencies and increased anti-social tendencies. In response to these findings, many academics have expressed concern that widespread doubt about the existence of free will may have a deleterious effect on individual behaviour, interpersonal relationships and the political and social institutions that rely on the assumption of it. Some have even gone so far as to recommend insulating the public from information that calls into question the existence of free will. Given how strongly this message has been resonating both within the academic community and more recently the public domain, a detailed examination of whether or not society would benefit by giving-up the belief in free will is necessary and timely

This paper's aim sets out to provide an account of how the mechanics and fixed operations of the human experience are occurring in a causally determined universe, where all outcomes of the universe are necessarily fixed and offer no alternative possible outcomes other than what has and will happen. Furthermore, there will be an examination of the universe and the human experience under the lens of dynamic systems theory acting in accordance with the laws of motion as laid out by Sir Isaac Newton. Therefore, a workable definition of free will is required so free will throughout this paper should be established. A good starting place would be from a position that understands free will as an assumption that human agents ultimately have the power to freely think and act according to their own personal discretion; that's is to say, "... a philosophical term of art for a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives." 1 Although there is a plethora of arguments put forward both for and against human agent's ability to possess free will, this paper will work under the guides that life is occurring in a fixed universe governed by cause and effect relationships without any alternative outcomes, making free will an impossibility for human agents.

In this thesis, I argue that an understanding of the philosophical context in which Virgil was writing can complicate and enrich our reading of the Aeneid. I aim to show that Virgil is not only making reference to philosophy, but also doing philosophy: he engages with, tests, and responds to philosophical ideas in a productive and challenging way. By way of introduction, I will give an outline of Virgil's philosophical context, and a justification for the general enterprise of philosophical readings in the Aeneid. I will then explain my methodology (what do I look for as a basis for individual philosophical readings, and what do these comprise?), and the aims of my study. I finally offer suggestions as to what this sort of analysis can contribute to Virgilian scholarship, and possible areas for further research

The title of this essay is likely to make it sound as though the following is going to be another one of those self-help 'how to' books that we are nowadays bombarded with in bookshops. And in a way that's what it is - only worse, since the author obviously doesn't know what he is talking about. For isn't this supposed to be philosophy? Yet surely the body of this essay couldn't even be close to whatever the author is going to tell us would be the written equivalent to Socratic philosophising (I don't see any dialogues)? Or, if that is what he intends to make us believe, then how boring it looks; just another useless theory. However, if this is not what he is going to say, then again it seems that the author doesn't know what he is talking (or writing) about.-Or could there be a difference between kinds of philosophy, or different ways of writing philosophy?

Throughout the history of Western philosophy, events have most often been assigned a secondary or derivative status with respect to substances or subjects, which are taken to underwrite them. An event, for instance, is understood to be a modification of the attributes of a substance. Linguistically, this framework is replicated in our grammar: a sentence begins with a subject and a predicate, while an event is represented as a change in predicate. However, since the 1930s, a number of philosophers have argued that no ontology can be sufficient without assigning events a primary, fundamental, and ontologically positive status in their own right.1 Remarkably, many have further argued that no ontology can be sufficient without assigning being an evental nature itself.2 In other words, they have advanced what I will call "evental ontologies." Many of the central texts arguing for evental ontologies are exceptionally difficult to interpret, and this is often a result of the way their arguments undermine the technical vocabulary of the tradition and its grammar built around subject predication. As a consequence, the reasons for taking such a position are frequently glossed over in relevant scholarship, which opts for either uncritical adoption of the terminology of evental ontologies or the dismissal of them on the grounds of their conceptual obscurity and seeming contrivance.

This is a study of Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy. As such it does not address her substantial output as a novelist, playwright, and poet-26 novels between her first, Under the Net (1954) and her last, Jackson's Dilemma (1995), six plays including A Severed Head (1964), The Italian Girl (1969), both adapted from her novels of the same name, and Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues (1986), two collections of poems (1978 and 1997 respectively)-nor her fascinating life-story. Rather, what this work aims to do is to clarify Murdoch's often dense philosophical prose and evaluate her (moral) philosophy with special emphasis on the role that fiction plays within her theory. 1 The second primary aim of what follows is to situate Murdoch in a larger tradition of ethical thought by showing how she builds on, deviates from, and develops themes from said tradition. To this end some effort is spent, in what follows, to try to pinpoint influences from, and reactions to, a large and eclectic group of thinkers. Even though this volume is concerned with the connections between morality and fiction, I will confine myself to the study of Murdoch's philosophical works without relating this to her novels. The primary reason for this is that the interpretative openness of her novels might well mislead rather than clarify. On such concerns regarding Murdoch and further motivations for the stance taken here see Hämäläinen (2016a: 152-154)

"We start with atomic parts, but these atomic parts have transitions, passages, 'tendencies,' which circulate from one to another. These tendencies give rise to habits. Isn't this the answer to the question 'what are we?' We are habits, nothing but habits-the habit of saying 'I.' Perhaps, there is no more striking answer to the problem of the Self" (Gilles Deleuze). The above passage from Gilles Deleuze encapsulates the major ideas of my dissertation. He begins the problem of a "self" not with identity or body, but with its compositional nature. However, he also does not focus on these "atomic parts" as merely reductive identities constituting a self, but rather their relationships with one another. He wants to know first and foremost about the communicative aspects that work below the scale of the self. It is thus crucial that he selected the words, tendencies, and habits, both aspects of behavior that could be construed as non-conscious because they occur primarily at the level of affection, or a body's capacity to produce and be productive of change. My project is primarily concerned with how we affect and are affected by machines. Like the above passage, I am interested in the compositional parts that make up both human and machine identities, as well as how those parts connect the two across the divide of being a living human being vs. being a machine devoid of the qualities of life and humanity. The dissertation will discuss this human/machine binary as resting on a fundamental problematic of communication-namely an ability or inability to self-express or communicate an identity that puts a body on one side or the other of the binary.

Albert Einstein approached questions in physics with philosophy in mind, as did many pioneers of quantum theory such Heisenberg and Niels Bohr. These people who revolutionized quantum theory, physics, and knowledge as a whole practiced physics with a di¿erent 'style' than is predominant today. Of late, it appears as though physics and philosophy are at odds. Many of the world's most celebrated physicists (such as Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, and Steven Weinberg) have publicly denounced philosophy as useless, fickle, and obsolete. The quotation below is a poignant example of what I argue is a widespread contemporary attitude toward the integration of physics and philosophy

Bullying as a construct has been under the lens of developmental psychology since many years. It is yet another form of abuse, sometimes subtle and undercurrent and sometimes violent and aggressive. There is a certain imbalance of sense of control or power which may be real or perceived. There have been numerous reported and unreported cases of bullying leading to grave consequences globally.

Himachal Pradesh, a Queen of Hills and Fruit bowl of India is also considered as the place of peace and spirituality wherein unity exists in diversity. The people of different religion (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian) in this hill landscape have mammoth beliefs in paranormal entities (spirits, deities/Solah savnis/devtas, Allah, Waheguru, Lord, Jinn, Bhootpret, Angel, Witchcraft) and their agents (Mali/Ojha/Shaman, Pandit, Pir, Faqir, Granthis & Fathers) those according to them fetch good luck, prosperity, peace and progress in their life. The peoples of this hill state have immutable belief in paranormal phenomenon and their agents who play vital role in reconciliation of socio-emotional conflicts to promote their wellbeing. Therefore, in the present study a pioneer attempt has been made to study the Folk beliefs, locus of control and wellbeing among Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian People by assessing the role of folk agents like as mentioned above in ameliorating socio-psychological conflicts. The study has been conducted in Himachal Pradesh on 400 people in two stages. In the first stage N = 240 subject (60 Hindu, 60 Muslim, 60 Sikh and 60 Christian) were selected and initially subdivided into two categories based on education (30 High Educated + 30 Low Educated) and later on the basis of Gender (15 Men and 15 Women) in each group. In all there were 16 groups with n = 15 subjects in each group selected on the basis of 4 x 2 x 2 factorial design. Purposive sampling was used in the present study. These subjects were assessed quantitatively by using paranormal beliefs, Spiritual health locus of control, Socioemotional conflict reconciliation, psychological distress, depression happiness, Spiritual well being and general wellbeing scales. In stage two qualitative analysis was performed on the 160 subjects (40 Hindu, 40 Muslim, 40 Sikh and 40 Christian) further subdivided on the basis of Gender (20 Men and 20 Women) in each group. There were eight group with n = 20 subject in each that comprised of aforesaid sample. These subjects were assessed with help of participant observation, interview, and case studies to know their physical, social, and psychological problems. Therefore in the present study both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed. Results based on ANOVA 4 x 2 x 2 revealed that the main effect of Religion on the measure of Paranormal belief was found F (3, 224=30.99, p

Our visual world is abound with distinct stimuli, which have different semantics and valance and from these we select only those stimuli which are meaningful and relevant to us. The cognitive process specifically involved in this selection is known as attention. Whereas, Consciousness can be understood as the state of arousal in which persons or animals are mentally receptive to signals coming from the surrounding environment (Pacherie, 2004). Baars (1997) have mentioned several contents which can be included as construct of consciousness like perception of the world around us, visual images, talking silently to ourselves, memory of events in our life, our beliefs about the world, day to day activities and attitude towards others.

AGING IN CONTEXT. The population of the elderly is increasing rapidly all across the world. Today, individuals living in developing nationals also enjoy long lives. This is a testimony to the advancements in the area of medicine and economy; at the same time, it becomes important for us to think about ways in which we can ensure happy, satisfied and productive lives for the elderly individuals who live for prolonged ages. Most of the elderly individuals are capable of living happy and full lives, and do not complain of physical and mental ailments. For many decades, the elderly was revered and venerated in our culture. The older generation were considered to be caretakers of the family heritage and a given a respectable place in the family. However, with industrialisation and the social changes brought alongside, the perceptions about the elderly also began to be changed.

Marriage is an antiquated practice, in spite of the fact that its importance may have changed all through reality. The word 'marriage' signifies a legitimate relationship between one man and one woman as a couple, and the word 'life partner' alludes just to an individual of the contrary sex who is a spouse or wife. As indicated by Vries. Marriage is more than adoration. Marriage comprises of a real existence of exertion and concern, felicitation and despairing, disease and wellbeing. It comprises of being youthful and getting to be old, managing little and enormous issues, adapting to inner and outer hardships and dangers and a great deal of days, weeks, months, and years are lived together and it takes a lot of patience. As per a new research published by Emily Dixon (2019), married people have better mental and physical health at older ages than unmarried people.