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91The relationship between free will and consciousnessPhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 1-17. forthcoming.Reflection on the relationship between free will and consciousness has mainly revolved around Libet-style experiments, for example by criticizing the claim that conscious intentions never cause what we do. Less attention has been paid to whether this response captures the sense in which consciousness is relevant for free will, however. In this paper I argue that scholars seem to accept two assumptions they should reject: (1) that the relationship between free will and consciousness is best chara…Read more
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44The Guidance Theory of Action: A Critical ReviewTopoi 40 (3): 687-694. 2021.Theories based on Frankfurt’s (Am Philos Q 15(2):157–162, 1978) view of action have recently been developed to account for passive, automatic, and habitual actions. What these theories share is that they aim to distinguish between actions and mere bodily movements without appealing to psychological states as causes. Instead, agents have guidance control over their actions. In this paper I argue that the versions of the theory that have been proposed are problematic. I propose to pay attention to…Read more
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43From causation to conscious controlPhilosophical Explorations 26 (3): 1-17. 2023.Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the nature of conscious control. As a result, experiments suggesting that we lack conscious control over our actions cannot be properly evaluated. Joshua Shepherd (2015; 2021) aims to fill this gap. His proposal is grounded in the standard causalist account of action, according to which, simply put, bodily movements are controlled by the agent if and only if they are caused, in the right way, by the relevant psychological states. In this paper, I ar…Read more
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32Habitual virtuous action and acting for reasonsPhilosophical Psychology 35 (7): 1036-1056. 2022.How can agents act virtuously out of habit? Virtuous actions are done for the right reasons, and acting for (right) reasons seems to involve deliberation. Yet, deliberation is absent if an agent’s action is habitual. That implies that the relationship between reasons and actions should be characterized in such a way that deliberation is unnecessary. In this paper, I examine three possible solutions: radical externalism, unconscious psychologism, and unconscious factualism. I argue that these pro…Read more
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31Neurowetenschappen en de Illusie van Vrije WilAlgemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 111 (3): 339-358. 2019.Neuroscience and the Illusion of Free WillCurrently, few neuroscientists and philosophers still defend the claim that neuroscience has shown the brain ‘decides’ what we do and that free will is an illusion. This does not imply, however, that this kind of neuroscientific researchcould notsay anything about the existence of free will. Neuroscience can offer insights in the unconscious causes and underlying processes of our actions and, because of this, could perhaps show whether we act out of free…Read more
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24Mijn intenties en ik. Filosofie van de vrije wilBoom uitgevers Amsterdam. 2021.Vrije wil is een raadselachtig fenomeen. Wij mensen hebben de indruk dat we zelf keuzes maken, maar de wetenschap vertelt een heel ander verhaal: onze handelingen zijn slechts het resultaat van onze persoonlijke eigenschappen, onbewuste associaties en hersenprocessen. Ons bewuste zelf is niets meer dan een passieve toeschouwer. Het is dan ook niet verrassend dat wetenschappelijk onderzoek vaak uitmondt in determinisme of ‘willusionisme’. Maar wat is vrije wil eigenlijk? En wat betekent het om ze…Read more
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23On the nature of implicit motivesTheory and Psychology 33 (4). 2023.David McClelland’s research on the different kinds of (implicit) motives and how to measure them has a substantial influence on contemporary psychology of motivation. He did not, however, reflect on the nature of implicit motives in much detail. In this paper I fill this gap. I argue that implicit motives should not be understood as mental states the agent has no introspective access to. Instead, I propose that the implicit motives that McClelland and others in the field distinguish – the power,…Read more
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23From Impairments in Reason-Responsiveness to Diminished Moral ResponsibilityAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 7 (4): 202-224. 2016.
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18There Is No Free Won't: The Role Definitions PlayJournal of Consciousness Studies 24 (5-6): 8-23. 2017.In this paper, I analyse how neuroscientists come to the conclusion that the brain 'decides' what we will do. I do so by focusing on a recent study on free won't, from which it is concluded that the decision to veto is not free. First, I argue that assumptions about voluntariness and freedom that underlie this and other Libet-style experiments are more stringent than assumed by other critics. Second, I claim that these assumptions lead to an experimental setting in which the conclusion that the …Read more
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13Implicit bias as unintentional discriminationSynthese 202 (5): 1-21. 2023.In this paper, I argue that instead of primarily paying attention to the nature of implicit attitudes that are taken to cause implicit discrimination, we should investigate how discrimination can be implicit in itself. I propose to characterize implicit discrimination as unintentional discrimination: the person responds to facts unintentionally and often unconsciously which are, given their end, irrelevant and imply unfair treatment. The result is a unified account of implicit bias that allows f…Read more
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11Waarom je denkt objectief en rechtvaardig te zijn, maar dat toch niet bent. We kunnen mensen onrechtvaardig behandelen zonder het te willen, en zelfs zonder het op te merken. Onbewust en ongewild maken we onderscheid tussen personen op basis van hun gender, etniciteit, leeftijd, lichaamsgewicht of seksuele oriëntatie. Hoe kan het dat ons zelfbeeld zo afwijkt van ons gedrag? Het antwoord lijkt helder: in het onbewuste liggen vooroordelen opgeslagen, die ongemerkt onze gedachten, gevoelens en besl…Read more
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Primary teachers' attitudes towards science: A new theoretical frameworkScience Education 1 (96). 2012.
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Depth of the self: Implicit motives and human flourishing. Introduction to the special sectionTheory and Psychology 33 (4). 2023.This special section is the outcome of a conference organized in Würzburg, as part of the interdisciplinary research project Motivational and Volitional Processes of Human Integration: Philosophical and Psychological Approaches to Human Flourishing (2018–2021). The goal of the project was to connect (philosophical) perspectives on flourishing to empirical research that suggests that implicit motives play an important role in who we are and what we do and decide. One main aim was to find a middle…Read more
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Primary teachers' attitudes towards science and technology: Results of a focus group studyIn Lieke Asma, Juliette Walma van der Molen & Sandra van Aalderen-Smeets (eds.), Professional Development for Primary Teachers in Science and Technology The Dutch VTB-Pro Project in an International Perspective. pp. 89-105. 2011.
Lieke Asma
Munich School of Philosophy
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Munich School of PhilosophyPost-doctoral Fellow
VU University Amsterdam
PhD, 2018
München, BY, Germany
Areas of Specialization
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Implicit Bias |
The Structure of Action |
Free Will and Psychology |
Free Will and Neuroscience |
Causal Theory of Action |
Unconscious Processes, Misc |