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CHC Physics Professor to Lecture on Ideas of Free Will in Humans

CHC Physics Professor to Lecture on Ideas of Free Will in Humans

Chestnut Hill College’s Elliot Tammaro, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics, will present his lecture “The Free Will Problem: Insights from Physics,” Monday, February 16, at 7 p.m., at the College’s Commonwealth Chateau, SugarLoaf Hill. The lecture will explore whether humans really have complete freedom in choices and actions or if those actions are determined ahead of time.

“Classical physics purports that all physical systems evolve deterministically. That is to say, the initial state of the system fixes the future state. We, as humans, are physical systems,” said Dr. Tammaro.

Determinism, by definition, essentially is the doctrine that says all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will or oneself.

“It is evident that we are made from the same protons and electrons that compose all physical systems. This implies, however, that we are bound by the same deterministic laws that govern matter, so that who we are and how we act, indeed, all the decisions we have ever made were already determined,” said Dr. Tammaro.

Dr. Tammaro will explore how this can be and if all our actions and choices are indeed predetermined.

“We have learned from experiment that physical systems obey deterministic laws. That is, given the state of a physical system at any one time the future state of the system is precisely determined for all future times. The seat of reasoning, muscular motions, memories, etc. seems to be the action claim of deterministic mechanism. While it is true that a physical system as rich as the human brain would almost appeal to chaos, it cannot resolve the issue at a fundamental level because determinism survives even in the face of chaos,” said Dr. Tammaro.

Dr. Tammaro will discuss what he calls the “problem” of free will and argue its importance within personal, moral and scientific levels.

A member of the physics department at Chestnut Hill College since May 2014, Dr. Tammaro did his doctorate work at Bryn Mawr College, where he earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics. His interest in his lecture topic of free will came about from his extensive examinations of quantum mechanics primarily from the “many-worlds interpretation.” 

Dr. Tammaro’s lecture is free and open to the public and sponsored by Chestnut Hill College’s Institute for Religion and Science. Contact Kathy Duffy, Ph.D., SSJ, at kduffy@chc.edu or 215-248-7197 for more information.  

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