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The ethical primate : humans, freedom, and morality / by Midgley, Mary,1919-2018.(CARDINAL)718708;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-191) and index.1300L
Subjects: Ethics.; Free will and determinism.; Human beings.; Human evolution;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Free agents : how evolution gave us free will / by Mitchell, Kevin J.(Professor of genetics),author.(CARDINAL)878143;
"An evolutionary case for the existence of free will. Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency-or free will-is an illusion. In Free Agents, leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence to the contrary, arguing that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose. Traversing billions of years of evolution, Mitchell tells the remarkable story of how living beings capable of choice emerged from lifeless matter. He explains how the emergence of nervous systems provided a means to learn about the world, granting sentient animals the capacity to model, predict, and simulate. Mitchell reveals how these faculties reached their peak in humans with our abilities to imagine and to introspect, to reason in the moment, and to shape our possible futures through the exercise of our individual agency. Mitchell's argument has important implications-for how we understand decision making, for how our individual agency can be enhanced or infringed, for how we think about collective agency in the face of global crises, and for how we consider the limitations and future of artificial intelligence.An astonishing journey of discovery, Free Agents offers a new framework for understanding how, across a billion years of Earth history, life evolved the power to choose and why this matters"--"Scientists are learning more and more details of how patterns of brain activity control behaviour; how animals - including humans - make decisions, how neural circuits accumulate evidence, weigh alternatives, and instigate actions. But as that decision-making machinery is being revealed, it seems harder to escape the conclusion that we really are just machines. Indeed, according to Mitchell it is fashionable among many scientists to declare that we do not in fact have free will - that there is no way that we could. In this book, Mitchell argues against this notion, instead contending that we really are agents: we make decisions, we choose, we act - we are causal forces in the universe. But Michell's goal here is not merely to lob another bomb into the free will debate; it is to show how, over billiions of years, life actually evolved the power to choose. Mitchell traces how agency evolved from the origin of life and the invention of nervous systems to the elaboration of decision-making and the eventual emergence of the kind of conscious cognitive control in humans that we call "free will." As Mitchell shows, over billions of years life evolved the power to choose, and this view is very much compatible with the laws of physics and new scientific discoveries. What emerges from this book is a new framework for understanding agency. This has important implications for how we think of who we are as humans, how we understand our decision-making processes, how our individual agency can be enhanced or infringed, and how we think about collective agency, particularly in light of global scale crises. More fundamentally, we see how the story of agency is the story of life itself"--Includes bibliographical references and index.Player one -- Life goes on -- Action! -- Life gets complicated -- The perceiving self -- Choosing -- The future is not written -- Harnessing indeterminacy -- Meaning -- Becoming ourselves -- Thinking about thinking -- Free will -- Epilogue : artificial agents.
Subjects: Free will and determinism; Brain; Neurosciences.; Evolutionary psychology.;
Available copies: 7 / Total copies: 7
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The garden / by Aidinoff, Elsie V.(CARDINAL)459996;
Retells the tale of the Garden of Eden from Eve's point of view, as Serpent teaches her everything from her own name to why she should eat the forbidden fruit, and then leaves her with Adam and the knowledge that her choice has made mankind free.650LAccelerated Reader AR
Subjects: Young adult fiction.; Eve (Biblical figure); Adam (Biblical figure); Snakes; Free will and determinism;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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Meant to be / by Halpern, Julie,author.(CARDINAL)388402;
In a world where the name of one's "meant to be" mate appears on one's chest at age eighteen, Aggy must decide whether to trust the phenomenon or follow her heart.
Subjects: Young adult fiction.; Free will and determinism; Fate and fatalism; Love; Science fiction;
Available copies: 9 / Total copies: 14
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Freedom of the will / by Edwards, Jonathan,1703-1758.;
Subjects: Kames, Henry Home, Lord, 1696-1782.; Free will and determinism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Spinoza's book of life : freedom and redemption in the ethics / by Smith, Steven B.,1951-(CARDINAL)728205;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-215) and indexes.Thinking about the ethics -- Thinking about God -- Thinking about thinking -- Thinking about desire -- Thinking about politics -- Thinking about love -- The authority of reason.
Subjects: Spinoza, Benedictus de, 1632-1677.; Ethics, Modern; Free will and determinism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Sugar and spite / by Villanueva, Gail D.,author.;
"Jolina can't take Claudine's bullying any longer! The taunts and teasing are too much. Though Jolina knows she's still in-training to use her grandfather's arbularyo magic, she sneaks into his potions lab to get her revenge. Jolina brews a batch of gayuma, a powerful love potion. And it works. The love potion conquers Claudine's hateful nature. In fact, Claudine doesn't just stop bullying Jolina -- now she wants to be Jolina's BFF, and does everything and anything Jolina asks. But magic comes with a cost, and bad intentions beget bad returns. Controlling another person's ability to love -- or hate -- will certainly have consequences. The magic demands payment, and it is about to come for Jolina in the form of a powerful storm..."--Amazon.com670LAccelerated Reader AR
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Magic; Bullying in schools; Free will and determinism; Friendship; Friendships.;
Available copies: 11 / Total copies: 15
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Saving God from religion : a minister's search for faith in a skeptical age / by Meyers, Robin R.(Robin Rex),1952-author.(CARDINAL)373860;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-224).Prologue: The night God fell from the ceiling -- Made in the image of humans -- Quantum physics and the common good -- Sin as the illusion that we are home alone -- Faith as trust, not belief -- Prayer as access, not petition -- Every move we make : a theology of consequence -- The center of the universe -- Epilogue: Above us only sky."A revelatory manifesto on how we can reclaim faith from abstract doctrines and rigid morals to find God in the joys and ambiguities of everyday life, from the acclaimed author of Saving Jesus from the Church. People across the theological and political spectrum are struggling with what it means to say that they believe in God. For centuries, Christians have seen him as a deity who shows favor to some and dispenses punishment to others according to right belief and correct behavior. But this transactional approach to a God "up there" - famously depicted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel - no longer works, if it ever did, leaving an increasing number of Christians upset, disappointed, and heading for the exits. In this groundbreaking, inspiring book, Robin R. Meyers, the senior minister of Oklahoma City's Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, shows how readers can move from a theology of obedience to one of consequence. He argues that we need to stop seeing our actions as a means for pleasing a distant God and rediscover how God has empowered us to care for ourselves and the world. Drawing on stories from his decades of active ministry, Meyers captures how the struggles of ordinary people hint at how we can approach faith as a radical act of trust in a God who is all around us, even in our doubts and the moments of life we fear the most"--
Subjects: Trust in God; Obedience; Free will and determinism; Christian life.;
Available copies: 7 / Total copies: 8
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Detours : the unpredictable path to your destiny [sound recording] / by Evans, Tony,1949-(CARDINAL)361755; Jackson, JD,narrator.(CARDINAL)833055;
Read by J.D. Jackson.Tony Evans is one of the country's most respected leaders in evangelical circles. As a pastor, teacher, author, and speaker, he serves the body of Christ through his unique ability to communicate complex theological truths through simple yet profound illustrations. While addressing the practical issues of today, Dr. Evans is known as a relevant expositor. New and veteran pastors alike regard him as a pastor of pastors and a father in the faith.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Free will and determinism; Change (Psychology); Fate and fatalism.; Predestination.; Christian life.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The coincidence makers / by Blum, Yoav,author.(CARDINAL)356409;
"The Coincidence Makers tells the story of Guy, Emily & Eric, whose job is creating coincidences and initiating various events in other people's lives. The three graduated from a "coincidence creation course" that took place 2 years prior to the events in the book, in which they learned techniques for creating what look like random events which will cause people to change their own lives. Fate is nothing more than a well-executed mission. Coincidence Makers are not regular people. They are responsible for organizing random encounters between lovers-to-be, creating moments of inspiration that help people make life changing decisions or "building" coincidences that cause important scientific discoveries. But when Guy gets a new special mission, that mission, along with a mysterious killer who appears in town and other hidden forces that he is not aware of, are going to change everything for the three coincidence makers and teach them about fate, free will & the true nature of love" --
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Detective and mystery fiction.; Coincidence; Life change events; Fate and fatalism; Free will and determinism; Choice (Psychology);
Available copies: 8 / Total copies: 10
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Results 21 to 30 of 491 | « previous |