Three separate fMRI studies were conducted to study the neural dynamics of free decision formation. In Study 1, we first searched across the brain for spatiotemporal patterns that could predict the specific outcome and timing of free motor decisions to make a left or right button press (Soon et al., 2008). In Study 2, we replicated Study 1 using ultra-high field fMRI for improved temporal and spatial resolution to more accurately characterize the evolution of decision-predictive information in prefrontal cortex (Bode et al., 2011). In Study 3, to unequivocally dissociate high-level intentions from motor preparation and execution, we investigated the neural precursors of abstract intentions as participants spontaneously decided to perform either of two mental arithmetic tasks: addition or subtraction (Soon et al., 2013). Across the three studies, we consistently found that upcoming decisions could be predicted with ~60% accuracy from fine-grained spatial activation patterns occurring a few seconds before the decisions reached awareness, with very similar profiles for both motor and abstract intentions. The content and timing of the decisions appeared to be encoded in two functionally dissociable sets of regions: frontopolar and posterior cingulate/ precuneus cortex encoded the content but not the timing of the decisions, while the pre-supplementary motor area encoded the timing but not the content of the decisions. The choice-predictive regions in both motor and abstract decision tasks overlapped partially with the default mode network. High-resolution imaging in Study 2 further revealed that as the time-point of conscious decision approached, activity patterns in frontopolar cortex became increasingly stable with respect to the final choice.:Abstract 1 1. General Introduction 5 2. Study 1: Decoding the Unconscious Formation of Motor Intentions 21 3. Study 2: Temporal Stability of Neural Patterns Involved in Intention Formation 56 4. Study 3: Decoding the Unconscious Formation of Abstract Intentions 89 5. General Discussion 119 References 145

Emmanuel Levinas on human freedom and relation to the other Ján Hreško ABSTRACT This dissertation deals with the philosophical problem of human freedom from an intersubjective and ethical point of view. It interprets and elaborates Emmanuel Levinas' understanding of freedom and shows that he paid considerable attention to this issue in his works. The thesis is based primarily on the formulation of this problem in his main post-war works but makes its thematic elaboration. It shows what role freedom plays within his ethics and its key ideas. The research follows the constitution of freedom of the corporal and economic being. It explains the criticism of freedom, the argument of justifying freedom and finally its investiture. Separately it focuses on the question of human position in history. Finally, it clarifies Levinas' main claim that responsibility precedes freedom. At the same time, it asks: In what sense did Levinas understand the ambiguous concept of freedom? Are there more notions of freedom? What is the relationship between my freedom and the freedom of the other? What does it mean that acceptance of ethical demand does not depend on my will or choice? And what is the positive significance of responsibility for the other? The main thesis of this work can be expressed as follows: according to...

Corneille et Racine sont deux auteurs emblématiques de la tragédie classique du XVIIe siècle.L’objectif de ce mémoire a consisté en une analyse et une réflexion à travers des personnages féminins et masculins sur un corpus de quatre de leurs oeuvres en matière de libre arbitre et de conscience. Ces personnages représentent le héros tragique, issus de l’aristocratie et/ou de sang royal. Notre choix des oeuvres s’est porté pour Corneille sur - Polyeucte et Le Cid - et pour Racine sur - Andromaque et Polyeucte. La méthode est basée sur le livre Le dieu caché de Goldmann plus particulièrement sur son concept des trois sphères : du divin, du monde et de l’homme. L’analyse, a porté sur la capacité des protagonistes à utiliser le libre arbitre, à faire usage de la volonté et sur la notion de conscience.La complexité de cette étude a résidé dans la complexité des personnages et dans la coexistence des trois sphères du divin, du monde et de l’homme, à l’intérieur desquelles il y a différentes subtilités, d’autant plus que les sphères interagissent entre elles.De ce fait, cela génère la complexité de mesurer le degré de volonté, le libre arbitre des personnages. Par ailleurs, à travers les tragédies étudiées, nous pouvons voir la place centrale de la femme, la différence de l’homme et de la femme en ce qui concerne le libre arbitre, la place des émotions chez les personnages. / Corneille and Racine are two emblematic authors of the 17th century classic tragedy. It features characters of high rank from the nobility and/or from royal blood. The aim of this thesis is an analysis and a reflection, through female and male characters on a corpus of four of their works, in the field of free will and consciousness. These characters represent the tragic hero, coming from the aristocracy and/or of royal blood. Our choice is for Corneille, Polyeucte and Le Cid and for Racine, it is Andromaque and Britannicus. The method is based mainly on Goldmann’s book Le dieu caché and mainly the concept of three spheres: of the divine, the world and mankind. The analysis is focused on the protagonists’ ability to use free will, to make use of the will and on the notion of consciousness.The complexity of this study has been in the complexity of the characters and in the coexistence of the three spheres of the divine, of the world and of mankind, in which there are various subtleties especially since the spheres interact between them.By the same ways, it is complex to measure the will, free will of the characters. Through the studied tragedies, we can see the central place of women, the difference between man and woman in the matter of their free will, the place of emotions in characters.

1 The concept of carpooling, its development and recent comprehension in judicial practice Abstract This thesis focuses on the concept of carpooling, its development and understanding of this concept in commonly spoken and legal language, including the current view of the Czech and European courts. A significant part of the work addresses the legal classification of carpooling. The first part describes the development of carpooling from its inception to the present. In the recent years, carpooling was often associated with the development of modern technology which caused confusion about the exact content of the concept of carpooling. In the second part I analyse carpooling from a linguistic viewpoint, both in terms of commonly used language and from a legal point of view. This also answers the question of whether the content of the concept "carpooling" has possibly changed over time. The third chapter looks at the relationship between carpooling and commercial activity. I try to find out whether any form of carpooling may also have commercial features. I also aim to establish whether there is a certain limit to when an activity can still be considered as carpooling. The fourth chapter discusses the most important case laws in the Czech and European context which deal with the solution of unfair competitive...

The centre of S. Francis of Sales's spirituality is love. In my thesis, first of all, I deal with formative influences which formed his personality. This is the starting point in the discourse about Francis's theological optimism, its roots and its influence on the conception of God. For S. Francis God is esentially the God in Trinity, who share love in the highest manner also with a man through the mystery of Incarnation. Francis's conception of love that has its seat in the heart of a human being is connected with that conviction. In the very top of a heart there is the will which is called up to make decisions according to love that gives the true motivation. On the way of the growth of love the highest aim is the holy indifference, which enables God to act in a human heart according to His intentions. For S. Francis love to God is closely connected with love to a man who is the image of God. During his direction of souls to love S. Francis recommends first of all kindness and as the main mens a prayer and sacraments. The heart which has become fully pervaded with love, which loves and is loved, we can best contemplate at Virgin Mary.

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Kenntnis über Patientenverfügungen sowie deren Akzeptanz und dem Vorhandensein dieser Vorsorgedokumente innerhalb eines Studienkollektives von Senioren in Leipziger Alten- und Pflegeheimen. Der Gegenstand der Patientenverfügung selbst wird, unter Berücksichtigung soziodemographischer, persönlicher sowie gesundheitlicher Aspekte, evaluiert. Außerdem werden Standpunkte der Heimbewohner wie beispielsweise die Bereitschaft zu lebensverlängernden Therapien sowie zu Reanimationsmaßnahmen hinterfragt. Vor dem Hintergrund der Ergebnisse werden Lösungsmöglichkeiten diskutiert, welche die Grenze zwischen medizinisch-technisch Möglichen und ethisch Vertretbarem bezüglich der Entscheidungen am Lebensende regulieren können.

The subjective experience of agency is a dimension of inner life that has consequences for motivation and moral judgment. Cognitive psychologists have studied the processes that underlie conscious will and metacognition of agency while social psychologists have examined how comparable constructs, such as autonomy and self-efficacy, relate to human needs and wellbeing. However, the consequences of the transient feeling state that accompanies agential experiences have received less attention. This dissertation examines the consequences of agency for motivation and moral judgment across seven experiments that manipulated feelings of agency via motor control games, episodic simulations, and autobiographical recollections. In its entirety, this work suggests that people seek experiences that confer high feelings of agency while both high- and low-agency experiences influence how we judge others’ actions. Chapter I reviews prior literature on agency and related constructs and introduces the conceptual and theoretical framework. Chapters II – IV discuss how feelings of agency manipulated via proximal, action-oriented cues and distal, outcome-oriented cues affect task preference. Findings suggest that people generally like experiences of high agency, and that motivation is more sensitive to proximal rather than distal disturbances. People tend to make choices to increase their likelihood of experiencing high agency via retention of action control, even at the expense of desired outcomes. Chapters V – VIII explore the relationship between agential experiences and moral judgments of others’ behavior. Results reveal a novel effect such that both high- and low-agency experiences lead to more intense judgments. In addition, people who are most sensitive to factors that influence their sense of agency also tend to deliver the harshest judgments. The findings suggest a two-process model of attributive projection and compensatory control mechanisms. They also imply a self-amplifying effect of extreme agency states such that both experiences of high and low agency may enhance activation of self-related schema, which in turn influence moral judgments. Chapters IX and X summarize the experiments and discuss the broader significance of this work for research on motivation and moral psychology.

The neuroscience of decision making is laying the puzzle of how the brain computes decisions. It tries to sort out which factors are responsible for causing us to choose one way or the other. This thesis reviews to what extent emotional brain processes and their neural circuits impact decision making. The somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) provides a solid dual-system framework for decision making. Dissociating an impulsive system, in which the amygdala is central, and a reflective system mediated by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex(VMPFC). The SMH emphasizes the function of the VMPFC as necessary and crucial formaking favorable long-term decisions. Research on moral decision making also shows that similar systems as used by the SMH has a key role in how we think about moral dilemmas as well. Damage or maldevelopment of these neural circuits can cause myopia for the future and deeply immoral behavior. Abnormalities in emotional neuronal circuits can also be linked to addictive behavior and psychopathy. The findings on decision making and its neuralsubstrates dismantle the common sense notion of free will and moral responsibility. An explanation of how the feeling of free will arises is given using the Interpreter system theoryof consciousness. Moral responsibility without the need for a free will is defended by analternative approach with a framework of a brain in-control versus out-of-control.

Far from being simply will, a survey of English grammar textbooks revealed that a multitude of expressions exists in the English language to express the future time. These expressions include, but are not limited to, will, be going to, the simple present tense, modals, the future perfect tense, and the present progressive tense. With so many choices and with a lack of direct relationship between tense and time, a language learner may certainly have difficulties in choosing which expression to use when attempting to produce a future utterance. A corpus-based approach to analyzing real language has been demonstrated to be quite useful for the field of TESOL (Biber, Conrad, & Reppen, 1996; Biber & Conrad, 2001; Biber & Reppen, 2002) and numerous studies on the frequency of lexical and grammatical items of language have revealed salient features that otherwise would have remained unknown. Adding to this body of knowledge, the current study was an analysis of future expressions in spoken conversational English using the television sitcom Friends as a corpus. A careful analysis of 349,106 words from transcripts of 117 randomly selected episodes revealed that the most common expression of the future in the English language is the contracted form of be going to – gonna. The results of the study also revealed that only six future expressions emerged in this spoken conversational English from this corpus: will, be going to, the simple present tense, the present progressive tense, modals, and be about to.

Future imagery can be described as how we imagine ourselves in the future, or which specific future scenarios we see ourselves in. It has been shown that suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder can impair these future images, both in content (eg. less positive images), and in image specificity (the images are described in more general terms and refer to less specific events). The aim of this study was to explore how future imagery is impacted both in content and characteristics (eg. positivity, regularity of rehearsal, vividness etc.) by experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, here used as a naturally occurring analogue of a stressful event. 74 non-clinical participants described their future images and rated their characteristics once during 2020/2021 regarding before the pandemic (retrospectively), and once regarding during the pandemic. Both descriptions were given on the same day (both descriptions were given during 2020/2021). Participants were also asked to describe in their own words how these images had changed due to the pandemic. Quantitative analyzes were made for the characteristics of the images, whilst the content of the descriptions was analyzed using thematic analysis (qualitative analysis). Results show that the most common content of future-self identities were “parenthood”, “marriage”, “job-specific”, “job-general” and “self-improvement”. Indications of hope for a better future were found in the content of their images related to those identities, as a majority of the participants stated a more positive and COVID-19 adapted future image during the COVID-19 pandemic than before (as rated by the researcher). However, ca. 30% of participants' images were rated as reduced in quality and/or salience. Regarding image characteristics, “positivity” was significantly higher before than during the pandemic, whilst “vividness” was higher during than before the pandemic.The results of the study align with or relate to previous findings and indications within the research field of intrusive memories, trauma and future imagery. The fact that a considerable number of participants indicated that their future images had been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, could add to previous studies’ reports on the need for support and clinical help for those negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Suggestions for future research would be to use coding frameworks that are well-established and adapted to country context, as well as exploring the future images of an older adult sample.