---------------------------------- Magyar Tudományos Akadémia 2002. december 16. Kémiai Tudományok Osztálya 1051 Bp., Nádor u. 7., I. em. 117 tel./fax: 411-6167 e-mail: pappe(a)office.mta.hu --------------------------------- Az MTA Kémiai Tudományok Osztálya, az MTA-ELTE Szerkezeti Kémiai Tanszéki Kutatócsoportja és a BME Általános és Analitikai Kémiai Tanszéke tisztelettel meghívja Prof. G. S. Stent (University of California at Berkeley, USA) 2003. január 14-én, kedden 14.00 órakor az MTA Felolvasótermében (Bp. V., Roosevelt tér 9., I. em.) tartandó The Paradox of Free Will and the Limits of Human Reason címu" elo"adására Az elo"adás alapjául Stent Professzor 2002-ben megjelent máris díjnyertes Paradoxes of Free Will cimu" könyve szolgál. A könyvben Stent provides an easily accessible, literate introduction to the ancient quandary of the freedom of the will. He traces its origins and its development by major thinkers, from the dawn of civilization to contemporary philosophers and scientists. Stent argues that Immanuel Kant was right in claiming that the paradox of free will inheres in human reason. Thus our innate pure theoretical reason tells us that a causal chain dating back to the beginning of time determines all happenings in the world (including human willing). Our innate pure practical reason tells us, however, that without being able to will freely, we could not understand ourselves as moral agents. Thus, according to Kant, we have to learn to live with this deep existential paradox as best as we can. In his discussions of the paradox, Stent considers many fields of study that touch on it, such as history, philosophy, biology, physics, evolutionary epistemology, sociobiology, and etiquette. The book succeeds in crossing narrow disciplinary lines without minimizing substantive issues. Gunther S. Stent received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1948. Upon being awarded postdoctoral research fellowships by the US National Research Council, he joined the founders of the then nascent (and as yet unnamed) discipline of molecular biology, first at the California Institute of Technology, then at the University of Copenhagen, and finally at the Pasteur Institute of Paris. His affiliation with the University of California, Berkeley, began in 1952 as Assistant Research Biochemist and continues today as Professor of Molecular Biology, Emeritus. Stent's professional experience includes also appointments as Senior Fellow of the National Science Foundation at the Universities of Kyoto and of Cambridge; External Member of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin; Guggenheim Fellow at Harvard Medical School; and Fogarty Scholar in Residence at the US National Institutes of Health. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1984. További információk, a vendéggel való esetleges találkozás megbeszélése: Hargittai István, az MTA r. tagja, 463-1286 vagy 463-4051 -- L a s z l o E. S z a b o Theoretical Physics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Department of History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University, Budapest H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924 Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172 http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo