Alfred Mele

"Remen" redirects here. For the unit of measurement, see Ancient Egyptian units of measurement.

Alfred Remen Mele (born May 22, 1951) is an American philosopher. He has been the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University since 2000. He specializes in irrationality, akrasia, intentionality and philosophy of action.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Mele attended Wayne State University, and received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1979.^{[citation needed]} He took a position at Davidson College in 1979 as a visiting professor, which led to a tenured position at Davidson, where he remained for 21 years until accepting his position with Florida State.^{[citation needed]}

Free will and autonomy

Mele explores the concepts of autonomy or self-rule and the concept of self-control. as they relate to terms like "free will."

Without committing himself to the idea that human autonomy is compatible with determinism or incompatible (the position of the libertarians), Mele provides arguments in support of autonomous agents for both positions. He is, as he says, "officially agnostic about the truth of compatibilism" and describes his position as "agnostic autonomism."

Mele proposed a two-stage model of "Modest Libertarianism" that follows Daniel Dennett's 1978 "Valerian" model for decision making. Like Dennett, Mele requires that the indeterminism should come early in the overall process. He describes the latter - decision - part of the process as compatibilist (effectively determinist).

Bibliography (partial)

Books (as author)

• Effective Intentions. Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Free Will and Luck. Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Motivation and Agency. Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Self-Deception Unmasked. Princeton University Press, 2001.
• Autonomous Agents: From Self-Control to Autonomy. Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Springs of Action: Understanding Intentional Behavior. Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Irrationality: An Essay on Akrasia, Self-Deception, and Self-Control. Oxford University Press, 1987.

Books (as editor)

• Free Will and Consciousness: How Might They Work? — (Oxford University Press, 2010; R. Baumeister, A. Mele, and K. Vohs, eds.)
• Rationality and the Good — (Oxford University Press, 2007; M. Timmons, J. Greco, and A. Mele, eds.)
• The Oxford Handbook of Rationality — (Oxford University Press, 2004; A. Mele and P. Rawling, eds.)
• The Philosophy of Action — (Oxford University Press, Oxford Readings in Philosophy, 1997; A. Mele, ed.)
• Mental Causation — (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993; J. Heil and A. Mele, eds.)

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References

• Notre Dame Philosophic Reviews, "Free Will and Luck": http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=7984
• Florida State University, Alfred Mele's Publications: http://www.fsu.edu/~philo/people/faculty/almele_pubs.html
• Florida State University, Profiles: http://campus.fsu.edu/profiles/mele/
• Davidson College, "NEH Grant Aids Davidson Philosopher's Study of Self-Deception": http://www2.davidson.edu/news/news_archives/archives9798/97.06Mele2.html
• JeeLoo Liu, Phil 3997 Syllabus, Fall 2003: http://faculty.fullerton.edu/jeelooliu/397(Reasoning)%20Syllabus%20F03.pdf
• The University of Sydney, The Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Philosophy: http://www.usyd.edu.au/research/events/2005/jul/03_app.shtml
• Alfred Mele on Information Philosopher

External links

• Mele's Profile Page - at Florida State.
• Mele's Home Page - at Florida State.