Abstract
Existence as conscious self-relationship – human aliveness in its real sense – is always also a choice: choice in favour of one amongst different possibilities to lead one’s life. The conceptual vocabulary with whose aid the conduct of an own life can be described includes categories such as freedom of action; relating to oneself; acting on the basis of reasons; but also chance and contingency. In the context of current naturalism, this further includes the contrast of brain and mind, of causalism as treated in the natural sciences and self-understanding as treated in the hermeneutics of being. The multi-layered relationship between chance and decision against the horizon of human autonomy will be partly clarified within the framework of a theory of the human ability to act which is informed by conceptual analysis.
Kohler, Georg