Education and the Free Will Problem

A Spinozist Contribution

Bibliographic Data

ID11951924
AuthorsJohan Dahlbeck (0000-0003-1669-7132, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume51
Issue4
Pages725-743
Publication date2017-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Philosophy of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-8249 • E-ISSN: 1467-9752
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-9752.12271
OpenAlexW2768839166
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited20

In this Spinozist defence of the educational promotion of students’ autonomy I argue for a deterministic position where freedom of will is deemed unrealistic in the metaphysical sense, but important in the sense that it is an undeniable psychological fact. The paper is structured in three parts. The first part investigates the concept of autonomy from different philosophical points of view, looking especially at how education and autonomy intersect. The second part focuses on explicating the philosophical position of causal determinism and it seeks to open up a way to conceive of education for autonomy without relying on the notion of free will in a metaphysical sense. The concluding part attempts to outline a Spinozistic understanding of education for autonomy where autonomy is grounded in the student's acceptance and understanding of the necessary constraints of natural causation rather than processes of self-causation

Autonomy · Causation · Determinism · Epistemology · Free will · Higher education · Metaphysics · Philosophy of education · Political science · Promotion (chess · Sociology · Free Will and Agency · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Psychology · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought · Social Psychology

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