Tackling the Topic of Free Will

By the numbers, a new research project on free will engages eight neuroscientists and nine philosophers spanning 17 universities in probing two basic questions: What is required for people to have free will? and Whatever that thing is that is required for free will, do humans possess it? As project leader Dr. Uri Maoz of Chapman University put it in a recent interview in Science magazine, this effort “aims to create a new field in the study of the brain—the neurophilosophy of free will.”

Coordinated through Chapman University’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Science, the project is funded jointly by Fetzer and The John Templeton Foundation. Fetzer's director of research, discovery, and development, Mohammed Mohammed recently shared his excitement for “this venture into the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience,”noting, “we are drawn to this work because of its cutting-edge exploration of free will, the breadth of the research effort Chapman University has developed, and the scale of this major funding collaboration with Templeton.”

Read the full story from Chapman University.