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HomepageThe Openness of the Universe for Free Will and Special Divine Action
Videos in English
Videos of the IAP conference 2017 on 'Causality, Free Will, Divine Action"
Video of the ceremony conferring the honorary doctorate to Richard Swinburne
Future Events
- Conference Free Will and Miracles, in English, 21–23 August, 2019 (not 2018) in Munich
- Disputation training for students of theology, Spring 2019, date to be announced
- Tagung „Ist die Theologie eine Wissenschaft?“, 13.9.2019 an der STH Basel
Past events:
- Conference Causality, Free Will, Divine Action, 13–1.9.2017 in Vienna
- Disputation workshop for students 20–22.9.2017
- One-day conference Voraussetzungen aus der Philosophie, Psychologie und Naturwissenschaft in der Theologie, 9.12.2017 in Basel
The topic of the project
Thanks to the support the the John Templeton Foundation, 2017–2019 the project The Openness of the Universe for Free Will and Special Divine Action will be carried out at the IAP. The main page of the project is in German. Summary:
Does man have free will? Are there divine interventions, for example miracles or direct acts of creation? These questions have in common that many negate them by claiming that the laws of nature, the causal nexus, or logic exclude such actions. So they answer the question not by examining the evidence for or against the existence of such actions but by accepting impossibility claims which entail an answer. The questions of this project:
- Is the universe open for free actions or divine interventions or other special divine actions? Are there reasons for the impossibility claims?
- What is a free action? Which definitions of ‘free action’ are useful and adequate? What is a divine intervention? What other kinds of divine action are there?
- Which evidence is there for the existence of free actions (of a certain kind) and of divine interventions? (An evidence-based approach.)
Philosophers, theologians, and natural scientist will be involved in the project. Besides research and publications, there will be:
- Three doctoral fellowships
- Two conferences
- Three disputation workshops for students of philosophy or theology
- Translation of books and articles into German
- Dissemination of results of the Templeton Projekts Special Divine Action, Free Will: Empirical and Philosophical Investigations, The Philosophy and Science of Self-Control, The Durham Emergence Project.
Personnel
- Daniel von Wachter, project leader
- Roderich Nolte, project administrator
- Prof. Dr. Dr. Frederik Herzberg, research fellow
- Dr Fabian Graßl, research fellow
- Alin Cucu, doctoral fellow
- Christoph Mocker, doctoral fellow
- Alexander Batthyány, Viktor Frankl chair for philosophy and psychology at the IAP, co-leader
- Prof. Dr. Harald Seubert, Philosoph, STH Basel, co-leader
- Dr. Paul Näger, philosophyer and physicist, University of Münster
Contact: openness@iap.li.
IAP, Fürst-Franz-Josef-Str. 19, FL-9493 Mauren. Tel. 00423 265 4343, Fax 00423 265 4341. Email: admin@iap.li