Oh, yes! “Libertarian” free will has no explicit connection to Libertarianism as a political philosophy. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence of the terminology sounding the same, even though it was developed completely independently. And certainly, the concept of libertarian free will is discussed extensively in the course.

Thanks, I will look out for the next course.

I was speaking about libertarian free will. I came across the concept of agent-causation in two articles found in “Free Will, 2nd ed”, edited by Gary Watson: “Agent Causation” by Timothy O’Connor, and “Toward a Credible Agent-Causal Account of Free Will” by Randolph Clarke. I may not have understood the concept, so I wondered if you were familiar with it. But looking at it again, if my summary above is correct then it seems to just be synonymous with libertarianism, so I can see why my question was unclear. Though that might just mean my summary was wrong.

I will offer this course at least once a year.

And that first is a good question to ask in the course. It would most relate to the last week’s module, but I’d accept it as a question in any unit of the course. The short answer is yes, reliabilism solves the problem.

As to the second question I don’t know what you mean. Do you mean Libertarianism the political-economic theory? If so, you’d need to find an actual example of a Libertarian making that argument. Then you could bring it to the class and we could analyze it. If you only mean libertarian free will (contra-causal free will), that’s a major thread of discussion throughout the course.

Also, do you discuss agent-causation as a defence of libertarianism? To my limited knowledge, agent-causation boils down to “humans have libertarian free will because we are agents, and agents have a magic type of causation different to the regular kind”. In other words, it questions the initial assumption that there is only one kind of causality – the billiard-ball variety.

I’m with Dennett.

That exchange will actually be something we study in the course.

My list of reviews (and debates), some by Christians, is here. There are a few more to be added. That list will update as I do.

A bit off topic, but I’m reading On the Historicty of Jesus for the second time (of many, no doubt!) now and I’m wondering whether there have been any good reviews of it from the Christians, yet. I didn’t see anything particularly compelling in the Amazon reviews, though I admit I haven’t read every single one. Richard, if you have already blogged on this and pointed out any reviews you think are worth looking at, could you point me to that? Thanks!