Are We Destined for Freedom? A Case for Compatibilism & Ontological Agnosticism

Raymond Tallis is Professor Emeritus of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester. He is a philosopher, poet, novelist, cultural critic, and a retired physician and clinical neuroscientist. He trained in medicine at Oxford University and at St Thomas’ in London and has 4 honorary degrees: DLitt (Hull, 1997) and Litt.

D. (Manchester, 2001) for contributions to the humanities; and DSc (St George’s Hospital Medical School, 2015; University of East Anglia, 2017) for contributions to medicine. He was an editor and major contributor to two key textbooks in the field, The Clinical Neurology of Old Age and Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and author of over 200 original scientific articles, including papers in Nature Medicine, Brain, Lancet. He has published fiction, poetry, and over 30 books on the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, philosophical anthropology, and literary and cultural criticism. Some of his works include: Aping Mankind (2010), Of Time and Lamentation. Reflections on Transience (2017; 2019), An Essay on the Mystery of the Sense-Making Animal (2018), Sunburst (2019), Seeing Ourselves. Reclaiming Humanity from God and Science (2020) and Freedom: An Impossible Reality (2021).