Seyma Yazici

I am a researcher from Ankara, Turkey. I obtained my Ph.D. in philosophy at the end of 2021 from Ankara University with a Ph.D. thesis entitled “God, Goodness, and Will.” During my Ph.D. I spent one-year at St. Louis University, Department of Philosophy as a visiting Ph.D. student with a grant provided by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye). After finishing my Ph.D., I joined the Philosophy of Mind Research Group at Philosophy Department of Bergen University for three months.

At Notre Dame, I will be working on a project that examines the theories of freedom in the light of theories of intellection in medieval and early modern philosophy. I will try to show that, particularly in medieval and early modern philosophy, the controversy over the nature and requirements of freedom ultimately arises from the disagreement over the nature of intellect or the act of intellection. In other words, the way philosophers conceive the operation of mind, and the modality of this operation has led them to have conflicting positions in metaphysics of freedom. By focusing on the theories of philosophers such as Aquinas, Leibniz, and Samuel Clarke whose conception of intellect or reasoning, and hence their conception of will differ from each other, I will seek to answer a number of questions: Is there a conceptual entailment relationship between intellect and will? What would this conceptual link, if it holds, imply in terms of freedom? Can an act of intellectual judgement, practical or theoretical, be free? And if it could be a free act, would it reduce the role of will to practical reasoning?

Affiliation: Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University

Host: Therese Cory