Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will: Legal and Philosophical Reflections

David Hodgson's final book,Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will(Oxford University Press 2012), published in the year of his death, focuses on two of his most significant philosophical interests, consciousness and free will, but it also considers the significance of these topics for the law. On Saturday 4 May 2013, a conference will be held at Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney, which sadly must mark his passing, but on a more positive note will critically analyse legal and philosophical themes in the book.

Often the topics of consciousness and free will have been treated in separate literatures and one of the interesting features of this book (and this conference) is the bringing together of these two areas of philosophy. However, the book and David Hodgson's work more generally is unusual in that it benefits from his work as a philosopher and his career as a legal scholar, legal practitioner and ultimately a Judge of Appeal of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The conference will be of interest not just to philosophers and legal scholars, but to solicitors, barristers and judges, as the sections of book that consider the implications of Hodgson's view for law will be a significant part of the conference. Other presentations will focus on the themes of consciousness and free will.