On the role of indeterminism in libertarian free will

In a recent paper in this journal, “How should libertarians conceive of the location and role of indeterminism?” Christopher Evan Franklin critically examines my libertarian view of free will and attempts to improve upon it. He says that while Kane's influential [view] offers many important advances in the development of a defensible libertarian theory of free will and moral responsibility?…?[he made] “two crucial mistakes in formulating libertarianism” – one about the location of indeterminism, the other about its role – “both of which have helped fan the flame of the luck argument”. In this paper, I respond to Franklin's criticisms, arguing that, so far from making it significantly more difficult to answer objections about luck and control, as he claims, giving indeterminism the location and role I do makes it possible to answer such objections and many other related objections to libertarian free will. A central theme of this paper will emerge in my responses: In order to make sense of freedom of will in general and to do justice to the complex historical debates about it, one must distinguish different kinds of control agents may have over events and correspondingly different kinds of freedom they may possess.     

O’Connor’s argument for indeterminism

Timothy O’Connor has recently defended a version of libertarianism that has significant advantages over similar accounts. One of these is an argument that secures indeterminism on the basis of an argument that shows how causal determinism threatens agency in virtue of the nature of the causal relation involved in free acts. In this paper, I argue that while it does turn out that free acts are not causally determined on O’Connor’s view, this fact is merely stipulative and the argument that he presents for this conclusion begs the question.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Reliability of Free and For-Pay Big Five Scales

The present study meta-analytically compared coefficient alpha reliabilities reported for free and for-pay Big Five scales. We collected 288 studies from five previous meta-analyses of Big Five traits and harvested 1,317 alphas from these studies. We found that free and for-pay scales measuring Big Five traits possessed comparable reliabilities. However, after we controlled for the numbers of items in the scales with the Spearman-Brown formula, we found that free scales possessed significantly higher alpha coefficients than for-pay scales for each of the Big Five traits. Thus, the study offers initial evidence that Big Five scales that are free more efficiently measure these traits for research purposes than do for-pay scales.     

晚期汉-英二语者英语被动句句法加工的ERP研究*

选取二语中等熟练者和高熟练者两类中国大学生被试,共40人(27女,13男),年龄为20~29岁,平均年龄23.88岁。采用ERP技术,以直译型英语被动句和意译型英语被动句作为实验材料,通过比较无违例、―句法违例句1‖(动词过去分词形式错误)、―句法违例句2‖(动词过去分词错误用为动词原形而造成的句法违例)以及―句法违例句3‖(动词过去分词误用为动词现在分词形式)条件下的行为数据和ERP多维数据变化的基础上,探讨了二语熟练度和语言间句法结构相似性对汉-英双语者英语被动句句法加工过程的影响。结果表明：高熟练者的反应时和正确率整体上优于中等熟练者;难易度不同的句法错误信息会直接影响被动句的加工,对明显有错误的句法信息的反应速度最快,―正确的局部句法信息‖反应时最长。对明显有错误的句法信息的正确反应率最高,最根本的句法结构的错误信息最低。最根本的句法结构的错误信息引发的P600最大,无违例条件引发的P600最小;高熟练者对最根本的句法结构的错误信息引发最大的P600效应,中等熟练者的P600效应未受不同句法错误信息的影响。行为指标支持句法加工相似性效应——直译句反应快、正确率高;意译句反应慢、正确率低。并且此效应在中等熟练者身上表现更加明显。但是脑神经活动模式未表现出句法结构相似性效应,说明二语熟练度在英语被动句加工中具有更为显著的作用。     

自由基在神经外科手术时脑保护中的意义

神经外科手术中脑内自由基(主要是氧自由基)产生增加,脂质过氧化反应增强,造成细胞结构和功能上的继发性损伤。自由基在继发性损伤中的具体机制尚未完全清楚,可能与缺血级联反应、缺血再灌注和细胞凋亡有关。术中采取措施清除自由基以及减少自由基的产生将有助于保护损伤的脑组织。     

自由基与蛛网膜下腔出血后脑血管痉挛的关系及防治策略

脑血管痉挛是蛛网膜下腔出血后的严重并发症之一,可引起脑组织严重缺血或迟发性缺血性脑损伤,甚至导致脑梗死,但其病理机制仍未完全清楚,而越来越多的研究表明自由基在脑血管痉挛病理变化过程中发挥着重要作用。通过对自由基与脑血管痉挛之间关系的科学分析,探讨蛛网膜下腔出血后与自由基相关的脑血管痉挛的防治策略。     

自由基与重度颅脑外伤并发SIRS的原因及治疗研究探讨

就重型颅脑外伤由于过氧化反应后自由基产生的原因、自由基对神经细胞的继发损伤、自由基在重型颅脑外伤状态下诱发或并发全身炎性反应综合征以及两种因素所引起的神经细胞凋亡进行综述。同时就目前学者们在手术抢救、监测血液粘度、持续腰大池置管脑脊液外引流术、亚低温治疗、药物治疗、高压氧与活性氧液治疗、恒定磁场治疗等方面治疗自由基和全身炎性反应综合征对神经细胞的继发损伤进行了讨论。重型颅脑外伤后应重视自由基和全身炎性反应综合征的治疗。     

A method for describing preschoolers' activity preferences

We designed a series of analyses to develop a measurement system capable of simultaneously recording the free-play patterns of 20 children in a preschool classroom. Study 1 determined the intermittency with which the location and engagement of each child could be momentarily observed before the accuracy of the measurement was compromised. Results showed that intervals up to 120 s introduced less than 10% measurement error. Study 2 determined the extent of agreement between two observers who simultaneously collected data for 20 children using 30-, 60-, 90-, and 120-s momentary time sampling (MTS) intervals. The three larger intervals resulted in high levels of interobserver agreement (above 90%), whereas the 30-s interval resulted in unacceptably low levels of agreement (less than 80%). By allowing observers to select from among the different MTS intervals via a datasheet array and then collect data with the chosen system, Study 3 determined observers' preferences for the remaining MTS intervals. Both data collectors preferred the 90-s MTS procedure. The sensitivity of the 90-s MTS procedure, which was shown to be accurate, reliable, and preferred, was then demonstrated by its use to describe activity preferences of a classroom of children in Study 4. This system identified high- and low-preference activities for individual children and revealed interesting patterns of response allocation by the group.     

Stochastic matching and the voluntary nature of choice

Attempts to characterize voluntary behavior have been ongoing for thousands of years. We provide experimental evidence that judgments of volition are based upon distributions of responses in relation to obtained rewards. Participants watched as responses, said to be made by "actors," appeared on a computer screen. The participant's task was to estimate how well each actor represented the voluntary choices emitted by a real person. In actuality, all actors' responses were generated by algorithms based on Baum's (1979) generalized matching function. We systematically varied the exponent values (sensitivity parameter) of these algorithms: some actors matched response proportions to received reinforcer proportions, others overmatched (predominantly chose the highest-valued alternative), and yet others undermatched (chose relatively equally among the alternatives). In each of five experiments, we found that the matchingactor's responses were judged most closely to approximate voluntary choice. We found also that judgments of high volition depended upon stochastic (or probabilistic) generation. Thus, stochastic responses that match reinforcer proportions best represent voluntary human choice.     

法兰克福型例和兼容论

本文首先对当代的自由意志问题进行简要概述,其次阐述法兰克福型例的论证和目的,及其他学者对该型例的批判,并提出自己的一些观点,最后通过对法兰克福型例的改进,进一步的探讨自由意志问题,维护传统的自由意志的观念,并进一步维护自由意志和决定论相兼容的立场。