Free Will And The Brain

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Mind, Brain, and Free Will

Author : Richard Swinburne
Publisher : Oxford University Press (UK)
ISBN 13 : 0199662576
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis Mind, Brain, and Free Will by : Richard Swinburne

Download or read book Mind, Brain, and Free Will written by Richard Swinburne and published by Oxford University Press (UK). This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Swinburne presents a powerful new case for substance dualism and for libertarian free will. He argues that pure mental events (including conscious events) are distinct from physical events and interact with them, and claims that no result from neuroscience or any other science could show that interaction does not take place. Swinburne goes on to argue for agent causation, and claims that it is we, and not our intentions, that cause our brain events. It ismetaphysically possible that each of us could acquire a new brain or continue to exist without a brain; and so we are essentially souls. Brain events and conscious events are so different from eachother that it would not be possible to establish a scientific theory which would predict what each of us would do in situations of moral conflict. Hence, we should believe that things are as they seem to be: that we make choices independently of the causes which influence us. It follows that we are morally responsible for our actions.

Free Will and the Brain

Author : Walter Glannon
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316298620
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (162 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will and the Brain by : Walter Glannon

Download or read book Free Will and the Brain written by Walter Glannon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-18 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neuroscientific evidence has educated us in the ways in which the brain mediates our thought and behavior and, therefore, forced us to critically examine how we conceive of free will. This volume, featuring contributions from an international and interdisciplinary group of distinguished researchers and scholars, explores how our increasing knowledge of the brain can elucidate the concept of the will and whether or to what extent it is free. It also examines how brain science can inform our normative judgments of moral and criminal responsibility for our actions. Some chapters point out the different respects in which mental disorders can compromise the will and others show how different forms of neuromodulation can reveal the neural underpinning of the mental capacities associated with the will and can restore or enhance them when they are impaired.

Free Will

Author : Sam Harris
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451683405
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Sam Harris

Download or read book Free Will written by Sam Harris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sam Harris, bestselling author of THE END OF FAITH takes on one of today's liveliest issues: whether or not we actually have free will.

The Neural Basis of Free Will

Author : Peter Tse
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262019108
Total Pages : 473 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis The Neural Basis of Free Will by : Peter Tse

Download or read book The Neural Basis of Free Will written by Peter Tse and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issues of mental causation, consciousness, and free will have vexed philosophers since Plato. This book examines these unresolved issues from a neuroscientific perspective. In contrast with philosophers who use logic rather than data to argue whether mental causation or consciousness can exist given unproven first assumptions, Tse proposes that we instead listen to what neurons have to say. Because the brain must already embody a solution to the mind--body problem, why not focus on how the brain actually realizes mental causation? Tse draws on exciting recent neuroscientific data concerning how informational causation is realized in physical causation at the level of NMDA receptors, synapses, dendrites, neurons, and neuronal circuits. He argues that a particular kind of strong free will and downward mental causation are realized in rapid synaptic plasticity. Recent neurophysiological breakthroughs reveal that neurons function as criterial assessors of their inputs, which then change the criteria that will make other neurons fire in the future. Such informational causation cannot change the physical basis of information realized in the present, but it can change the physical basis of information that may be realized in the immediate future. This gets around the standard argument against free will centered on the impossibility of self-causation. Tse explores the ways that mental causation and qualia might be realized in this kind of neuronal and associated information-processing architecture, and considers the psychological and philosophical implications of having such an architecture realized in our brains.

Neurophilosophy of Free Will

Author : Henrik Walter
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262265034
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Neurophilosophy of Free Will by : Henrik Walter

Download or read book Neurophilosophy of Free Will written by Henrik Walter and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-01-23 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walter applies the methodology of neurophilosophy to one of philosophy's central challenges, the notion of free will. Neurophilosophical conclusions are based on, and consistent with, scientific knowledge about the brain and its functioning. Neuroscientists routinely investigate such classical philosophical topics as consciousness, thought, language, meaning, aesthetics, and death. According to Henrik Walter, philosophers should in turn embrace the wealth of research findings and ideas provided by neuroscience. In this book Walter applies the methodology of neurophilosophy to one of philosophy's central challenges, the notion of free will. Neurophilosophical conclusions are based on, and consistent with, scientific knowledge about the brain and its functioning. Walter's answer to whether there is free will is, It depends. The basic questions concerning free will are (1) whether we are able to choose other than we actually do, (2) whether our choices are made intelligibly, and (3) whether we are really the originators of our choices. According to Walter, freedom of will is an illusion if we mean by it that under identical conditions we would be able to do or decide otherwise, while simultaneously acting only for reasons and being the true originators of our actions. In place of this scientifically untenable strong version of free will, Walter offers what he calls natural autonomy—self-determination unaided by supernatural powers that could exist even in an entirely determined universe. Although natural autonomy can support neither our traditional concept of guilt nor certain cherished illusions about ourselves, it does not imply the abandonment of all concepts of responsibility. For we are not mere marionettes, with no influence over our thoughts or actions.

Why Free Will Is Real

Author : Christian List
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674239814
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Free Will Is Real by : Christian List

Download or read book Why Free Will Is Real written by Christian List and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-06 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A crystal-clear, scientifically rigorous argument for the existence of free will, challenging what many scientists and scientifically minded philosophers believe. Philosophers have argued about the nature and the very existence of free will for centuries. Today, many scientists and scientifically minded commentators are skeptical that it exists, especially when it is understood to require the ability to choose between alternative possibilities. If the laws of physics govern everything that happens, they argue, then how can our choices be free? Believers in free will must be misled by habit, sentiment, or religious doctrine. Why Free Will Is Real defies scientific orthodoxy and presents a bold new defense of free will in the same naturalistic terms that are usually deployed against it. Unlike those who defend free will by giving up the idea that it requires alternative possibilities to choose from, Christian List retains this idea as central, resisting the tendency to defend free will by watering it down. He concedes that free will and its prerequisites—intentional agency, alternative possibilities, and causal control over our actions—cannot be found among the fundamental physical features of the natural world. But, he argues, that’s not where we should be looking. Free will is a “higher-level” phenomenon found at the level of psychology. It is like other phenomena that emerge from physical processes but are autonomous from them and not best understood in fundamental physical terms—like an ecosystem or the economy. When we discover it in its proper context, acknowledging that free will is real is not just scientifically respectable; it is indispensable for explaining our world.

Who's in Charge?

Author : Michael S. Gazzaniga
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062096834
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Who's in Charge? by : Michael S. Gazzaniga

Download or read book Who's in Charge? written by Michael S. Gazzaniga and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Big questions are Gazzaniga’s stock in trade.” —New York Times “Gazzaniga is one of the most brilliant experimental neuroscientists in the world.” —Tom Wolfe “Gazzaniga stands as a giant among neuroscientists, for both the quality of his research and his ability to communicate it to a general public with infectious enthusiasm.” —Robert Bazell, Chief Science Correspondent, NBC News The author of Human, Michael S. Gazzaniga has been called the “father of cognitive neuroscience.” In his remarkable book, Who’s in Charge?, he makes a powerful and provocative argument that counters the common wisdom that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes we cannot control. His well-reasoned case against the idea that we live in a “determined” world is fascinating and liberating, solidifying his place among the likes of Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio, V.S. Ramachandran, and other bestselling science authors exploring the mysteries of the human brain.

Free Will

Author : Meghan Griffith
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0415562198
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (155 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Meghan Griffith

Download or read book Free Will written by Meghan Griffith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of whether humans are free to make their own decisions has long been debated and it continues to be a controversial topic today. In Free Will: The Basics readers are provided with a clear and accessible introduction to this central but challenging philosophical problem. The questions which are discussed include: Does free will exist? Or is it illusory? Can we be free even if everything is determined by a chain of causes? If our actions are not determined, does this mean they are just random or a matter of luck? In order to have the kind of freedom required for moral responsibility, must we have alternatives? What can recent developments in science tell us about the existence of free will? Because these questions are discussed without prejudicing one view over others and all technical terminology is clearly explained, this book is an ideal introduction to free will for the uninitiated.

Free Will

Author : Uri Maoz
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197572189
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Uri Maoz

Download or read book Free Will written by Uri Maoz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is free will? Can it exist in a determined universe? How can we determine who, if anyone, possesses it? Philosophers have debated the extent of human free will for millennia. In recent decades neuroscientists have joined the fray with questions of their own. Which neural mechanisms could enable conscious control of action? What are intentional actions? Do contemporary developments in neuroscience rule out free will or, instead, illuminate how it works? Over the past few years, neuroscientists and philosophers have increasingly come to understand that both fields can make substantive contributions to the free-will debate, so working together is the best path forward to understanding whether, when, and how our choices might be free This book contains thirty bidirectional exchanges between neuroscientists and philosophers that focus on the most critical questions in the neurophilosophy of free will. It mimics a lively, interdisciplinary conference, where experts answer questions and follow-up questions from the other field, helping each discipline to understand how the other thinks and works. Each chapter is concise and accessible to non-experts-free from disciplinary jargon and highly technical details-but also employs thorough and up-to-date research from experts in the field. The resulting collection should be useful to anyone who wants to get up to speed on the most fundamental issues in the rising field of the neurophilosophy of free will. It will interest experts from philosophy or neuroscience who want to learn about the other discipline, students in courses on a host of related topics, and lay readers who are fascinated by these profound issues.

Why Evolution is True

Author : Jerry A. Coyne
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 019164384X
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Evolution is True by : Jerry A. Coyne

Download or read book Why Evolution is True written by Jerry A. Coyne and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-01-14 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For all the discussion in the media about creationism and 'Intelligent Design', virtually nothing has been said about the evidence in question - the evidence for evolution by natural selection. Yet, as this succinct and important book shows, that evidence is vast, varied, and magnificent, and drawn from many disparate fields of science. The very latest research is uncovering a stream of evidence revealing evolution in action - from the actual observation of a species splitting into two, to new fossil discoveries, to the deciphering of the evidence stored in our genome. Why Evolution is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, palaeontology, geology, molecular biology, anatomy, and development to demonstrate the 'indelible stamp' of the processes first proposed by Darwin. It is a crisp, lucid, and accessible statement that will leave no one with an open mind in any doubt about the truth of evolution.

Is Science Compatible with Free Will?

Author : Antoine Suarez
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461452120
Total Pages : 477 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (614 download)

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Book Synopsis Is Science Compatible with Free Will? by : Antoine Suarez

Download or read book Is Science Compatible with Free Will? written by Antoine Suarez and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-22 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anyone who claims the right ‘to choose how to live their life’ excludes any purely deterministic description of their brain in terms of genes, chemicals or environmental influences. For example, when an author of a text expresses his thoughts, he assumes that, in typing the text, he governs the firing of the neurons in his brain and the movement of his fingers through the exercise of his own free will: what he writes is not completely pre-determined at the beginning of the universe. Yet in the field of neuroscience today, determinism dominates. There is a conflict between the daily life conviction that a human being has free will, and deterministic neuroscience. When faced with this conflict two alternative positions are possible: Either human freedom is an illusion, or deterministic neuroscience is not the last word on the brain and will eventually be superseded by a neuroscience that admits processes not completely determined by the past. This book investigates whether it is possible to have a science in which there is room for human freedom. The book generally concludes that the world and the brain are governed to some extent by non-material agencies, and limited consciousness does not abolish free will and responsibility. The authors present perspectives coming from different disciplines (Neuroscience, Quantumphysics and Philosophy) and range from those focusing on the scientific background, to those highlighting rather more a philosophical analysis. However, all chapters share a common characteristic: they take current scientific observations and data as a basis from which to draw philosophical implications. It is these features that make this volume unique, an exceptional interdisciplinary approach combining scientific strength and philosophical profundity. We are convinced that it will strongly stimulate the debate and contribute to new insights in the mind-brain relationship.

Freedom and Neurobiology

Author : John R. Searle
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231137524
Total Pages : 129 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Freedom and Neurobiology by : John R. Searle

Download or read book Freedom and Neurobiology written by John R. Searle and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the second half of the book, Searle applies his theory of social reality to the problem of political power, explaining the role of language in the formation of our political reality. The institutional structures that organize, empower, and regulate our lives - money, property, marriage, government - consist in the assignment and collective acceptance of certain statuses to objects and people. Whether it is the president of the United States, a twenty-dollar bill, or private property, these entities perform functions as determined by their status in our institutional reality. Searle focuses on the political powers that exist within these systems of status functions and the way in which language constitutes them."--BOOK JACKET.

Free Will, Causality, and Neuroscience

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004409963
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will, Causality, and Neuroscience by :

Download or read book Free Will, Causality, and Neuroscience written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-21 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neuroscientists often consider free will to be an illusion. Contrary to this hypothesis, the contributions to this volume show that recent developments in neuroscience can also support the existence of free will. Firstly, the possibility of intentional consciousness is studied. Secondly, Libet’s experiments are discussed from this new perspective. Thirdly, the relationship between free will, causality and language is analyzed. This approach suggests that language grants the human brain a possibility to articulate a meaningful personal life. Therefore, human beings can escape strict biological determinism. Contributing author Sofia Bonicalzi has received funding from the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 754388 (LMUResearchFellows) and from LMUexcellent, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free State of Bavaria under the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal Government and the Länder.

Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will

Author : William R. Klemm
Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 9780128051535
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (515 download)

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Book Synopsis Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will by : William R. Klemm

Download or read book Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will written by William R. Klemm and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making a Scientific Case for Conscious Agency and Free Will makes a series of arguments that certain human behaviors are impossible to explain in the absence of free will, and that free will emerges from materialistic processes of brain function. It outlines future directions for neuroscience studies that can harness emerging technologies and tools for systems-level analysis. All humans have the sensation that they consciously will certain things to happen and that, in the absence of external constraints, they are free to choose from among alternatives. This notion of free will is deemed obvious by the average person based on common experience. Free will is frequently defended with arguments stemming from social, legal, philosophical, and religious perspectives. But these arguments appeal to consequences-not causes-of choices and decisions. In the past 3 decades, debate has raged within the scientific community over whether free will is in fact an illusion. Because free will would require conscious agency, the supporting corollary is that consciousness itself cannot do anything and is merely an observer rather than an actor.

Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will

Author : Nancey Murphy
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3642032052
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will by : Nancey Murphy

Download or read book Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will written by Nancey Murphy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-09-30 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments? How can the emergence of complexity in hierarchical systems such as the brain, based at the lower levels in physical interactions, lead to something like genuine free will? The nature of our understanding of free will in the light of present-day neuroscience is becoming increasingly important because of remarkable discoveries on the topic being made by neuroscientists at the present time, on the one hand, and its crucial importance for the way we view ourselves as human beings, on the other. A key tool in understanding how free will may arise in this context is the idea of downward causation in complex systems, happening coterminously with bottom up causation, to form an integral whole. Top-down causation is usually neglected, and is therefore emphasized in the other part of the book’s title. The concept is explored in depth, as are the ethical and legal implications of our understanding of free will. This book arises out of a workshop held in California in April of 2007, which was chaired by Dr. Christof Koch. It was unusual in terms of the breadth of people involved: they included physicists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, and theologians. This enabled the meeting, and hence the resulting book, to attain a rather broader perspective on the issue than is often attained at academic symposia. The book includes contributions by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, George F. R. Ellis , Christopher D. Frith, Mark Hallett, David Hodgson, Owen D. Jones, Alicia Juarrero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Christof Koch, Hans Küng, Hakwan C. Lau, Dean Mobbs, Nancey Murphy, William Newsome, Timothy O’Connor, Sean A.. Spence, and Evan Thompson.

Freedom Regained

Author : Julian Baggini
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022631989X
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis Freedom Regained by : Julian Baggini

Download or read book Freedom Regained written by Julian Baggini and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Originally published in English by Granta Publications under the title Freedom Regained"--Title page verso.

Free Will

Author : Mark Balaguer
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262525798
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will by : Mark Balaguer

Download or read book Free Will written by Mark Balaguer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-02-14 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A philosopher considers whether the scientific and philosophical arguments against free will are reason enough to give up our belief in it. In our daily life, it really seems as though we have free will, that what we do from moment to moment is determined by conscious decisions that we freely make. You get up from the couch, you go for a walk, you eat chocolate ice cream. It seems that we're in control of actions like these; if we are, then we have free will. But in recent years, some have argued that free will is an illusion. The neuroscientist (and best-selling author) Sam Harris and the late Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner, for example, claim that certain scientific findings disprove free will. In this engaging and accessible volume in the Essential Knowledge series, the philosopher Mark Balaguer examines the various arguments and experiments that have been cited to support the claim that human beings don't have free will. He finds them to be overstated and misguided. Balaguer discusses determinism, the view that every physical event is predetermined, or completely caused by prior events. He describes several philosophical and scientific arguments against free will, including one based on Benjamin Libet's famous neuroscientific experiments, which allegedly show that our conscious decisions are caused by neural events that occur before we choose. He considers various religious and philosophical views, including the philosophical pro-free-will view known as compatibilism. Balaguer concludes that the anti-free-will arguments put forward by philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists simply don't work. They don't provide any good reason to doubt the existence of free will. But, he cautions, this doesn't necessarily mean that we have free will. The question of whether we have free will remains an open one; we simply don't know enough about the brain to answer it definitively.