In “Are You Really Free? Yes: A New Argument for Freedom,” Robert Hanna asks how human freedom is really possible in the natural world as correctly described by modern physics, chemistry, biology, and cognitive neuroscience?, or alternatively, given the truth of modern science, are you really free? Hanna answers this double question in the affirmative, and by way of justification, argues for a metaphysical thesis he calls “Kantian natural libertarianism.” Kantian natural libertarianism flows from two simple but earth-shattering ideas proposed by Kant in the 18th century, and also from one slightly less simple but still earth-shattering idea proposed by Nobel laureate physicist Ilya Prigogine in the late 20th century: first, action that is perfectly in conformity with a law, is not necessarily entailed or otherwise necessitated by that law; second, real freedom presupposes, in rational human animals, the natural processes specifically characteristic of living organisms; but living organisms are not natural automata, whether deterministic or indeterministic, because they are self-organizing and purposive; hence real freedom is grounded in biological anti-mechanism; and third, the correct physics is a non-deterministic interpretation of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Real freedom, then, is natural self-determination. This is just like a creative artist who makes an original work of art by spontaneously locally re-organizing and re-structuring whatever already-existing materials are given to her. As naturally self-determining animals, we are all creative natural artists, “little bangs,” who purposively bring new energy-structures into the world, and thereby actualize potential energy.
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