[News] Conference "Free Will: New Perspectives from Philosophy, Biology and Neuroscience", 11-12 June 2025, & CfP

Dear colleagues, You are cordially invited to the interdisciplinary conference "Free Will: New Perspectives from Philosophy, Biology and Neuroscience", taking place on 11th & 12th June 2025 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Vienna, Austria, and ONLINE. Organiser: Dr. Anne Sophie Meincke (anne.sophie.meincke(a)univie.ac.at), PI of the Elise Richter research project "Bio-Agency and Natural Freedom" (Austrian Science Fund, grant DOI 10.55776/V714) Description: In everyday life, we naturally assume that it is up to us how we act, and that we are therefore responsible for our actions. However, free will in this strong, ‘libertarian’ sense – involving a choice between alternatives – is increasingly being questioned by philosophers and scientists. While traditional concerns were predicated on the deterministic laws of classical physics, today sceptics also cite biology and neuroscience. We are told that our genes or our brains, not we, decide what we want and how we act. This conference gathers leading experts in philosophy, biology and neuroscience who argue the opposite. Cutting-edge research into the biological and neural basis of human and animal agency challenges deterministic assumptions, adding to doubts from quantum physics and pointing to non-reductionist views of agency and action causation. At the same time, recent advances in the philosophy of biology and metaphysics offer new conceptual resources for understanding agency and free will under indeterminism. The conference explores the resulting prospects for a scientifically grounded, ontologically robust concept of ‘libertarian’ free will, breaking new ground in interdisciplinary research on free will. Invited Speakers: Björn Brembs (University of Regensburg), John Dupré (University of Exeter), Geert Keil (Humboldt University of Berlin), Christian List (LMU Munich), Anne Sophie Meincke (University of Vienna), Alfred R. Mele (Florida State University), Kevin Mitchell (with Henry Potter; both Trinity College Dublin), Stephen Mumford (Durham University), Helen Steward (University of Leeds), Peter U. Tse (Dartmouth College). Concluding Reflections: Johannes Jaeger (University of Vienna), Josef Quitterer (University of Innsbruck) For more details please see the attached conference programme and visit https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/veranstaltung/der-freie-wille-im-fokus-von-ph… To attend in person, please register free of charge via https://www.oeaw.ac.at/veranstaltungen/anmeldung/free-will-new-perspectives… Or follow the event via live stream: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/veranstaltungen/live The conference will be preceded by a Young Academy Distinguished Lecture by Alfred R. Mele (Florida State University) and Anne Sophie Meincke (University of Vienna & Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) on the question “Can Biology Help Us Defend Free Will?” on 10th June 2025 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, see https://www.oeaw.ac.at/junge-akademie/jours-fixes/1/news-details/young-acad… We look forward to seeing you in Vienna or online. Please also note the associated Call for Papers for a Topical Collection in the journal "Synthese", entitled "Agency and Free Will in an Indeterministic Universe: New Perspectives from Philosophy, Biology and Neuroscience", see https://link.springer.com/collections/cjjciagiei . Best wishes, Dr. Anne Sophie Meincke -- Recent publications: "Continuant Processes or Processual Continuants? Towards an Analytic Process Metaphysics", in: Objects and Properties: New Essays in Metaphysics, ed. by A. Moran & C. Rossi, Oxford University Press, forthcoming "Emergent Properties", in: The Routledge Handbook of Properties, ed. by A. Fisher & A.-S. Maurin (pp.347-357), Routledge 2024 "The Metaphysics of Development and Evolution: From Thing Ontology to Process Ontology", Human Development 67, 5-6 (2023), 233-256: https://doi.org/10.1159/000534421 "The Metaphysics of Living Consciousness: Metabolism, Agency and Purposiveness", Biosemiotics 16 (2023), 281–290: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12304-023-09531-0 www.annesophiemeincke.com Elise Richter Research Fellow Institute of Philosophy University of Vienna Universitätsstraße 7 1010 Vienna, Austria