Possibilities of Free Will in Different Physical, Social, and Technological Worlds: An Introduction to a Thematic Issue.

In this introduction to a thematic issue dealing with free will, some possibilities of free will in different physical, social, and technological worlds, as well as discussions of the possibilities are considered. What are the possibilities and limitations of free will in various other worlds differing from our world? What are the possibilities and limitations of free will in different species, both in our world and in other hypothetical worlds, including future species, naturally evolving, and artificially modified? What are the possibilities and limitations of free will related to the development of AI? How can the diversity of free will levels in an agent be related to possible levels (depth) of its self-knowledge? What can agents differing in levels of self-knowledge know and think about the issue of free will? How do different societies (social worlds) support and inhibit different manifestations of free will in different areas? What is the role of hard neurodeterminism and "mindless neuroscience" in general neuroscience? What are ethical aspects of the questions, including the initial one: "If a neuroscientist denies free will, how can they write a text of voluntary informed consent and propose to sign it?".

Creativity of Creativity Researchers: Invention of Problems and Experimental Objects to Study Thinking.

Invention of problem situations and experimental objects to study others' thinking is a special kind of creativity worthy of scientific interest. The objects are considered in terms of Latour's actor network theory (as nonhuman actants), cultural psychology (as cultural tools), and Gibson's theory of affordances (as meta-affordances). A fundamental problem of validity in studies of curiosity and exploration is discussed. The author's experience of inventions of exploratory objects to be experimented with is analyzed. An inter(trans)-disciplinary insight penetrating and integrating all levels of the work on an exploratory object is described. An example of participants' revealing of an object's unexpected faculties ("serendipities") undesirable from the experimenter's point of view is given. It is shown that an object designed to study thinking in one sample can be used in another sample with unexpected results. It is argued that automatic generation of problem posing-and-solving situations and exploratory objects, beginning from some levels of their novelty and complexity, is hardly possible because of fundamental limitations of "standard means to generate or score non-standard ends".

Towards an Algebra of Existence and Development of Unique Subjects with Unique Minds: a Commentary to Jens Mammen's Book.

In the commentary to Jens Mammen's book A New Logical Foundation for Psychology (2017), three issues are discussed. The first one concerns possible interrelations of: (a) others' irreplaceability and existential irretrievability rigorously proved by Mammen; and (b) morality and attitudes to the others. Lem's criticism of Heidegger's existential philosophy, which paradoxically ignores mass homicide, is discussed in the context of topology of being. Different attitudes to the other as irreplaceable and irretrievable (e.g., in case of apprehension and execution of a murderer) are analyzed. The second issue concerns the possibility of true duplicates of the same person. The paradox of copied complexity is introduced. The third issue concerns reductionism (including brain reductionism) and opportunities to deduce various phenomena of development (mental development, actual genesis of creative thinking, etc.) from the new logical foundation for psychology built by Mammen.

Multiple dilemmas of help and counteraction to teaching in complex social worlds.

Human civilization has a system of different social tools, institutions, and types of positive and negative work with teaching/learning determined by different interests of many actors. Negative work is more hidden and less studied. A paradoxical adaptive problem for teachers with good intentions is design of teaching/learning that equips pupils for learning in future environments unknown to the teachers.