An Adequate Model of Free Will for Cognitive Neuroscience

Free Will;Neuroscience

Liu, Sam Chi-Hao ; Gillett, Grant

University of Otago

关键词: Free Will;    Neuroscience;   

Others  :  https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/10523/2407/3/LiuSamCH2012MSc.pdf

美国|英语

来源: Otago University Research Archive

【 摘 要 】

The debates on whether human beings have free will have been widely held in many fields such as philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, law, and physics.Despite some people argue that free will is no more than an illusion, in my thesis, I argue that free will exists.Such position has been furiously attacked in the literatures, largely because it does not fit into our understandings of this mechanical world.Therefore to support that free will exists, we need to suggest a worldview that free will can fit into.The first two chapters will introduce the circumstances when we exercise free will and then introduce a novel model of dualism.From chapter three onwards, I will propose a free will model based on agent-causation theory but goes one step further.I argue that a person can develop a thinking process through holding an idea in his mind.For example when a person is considering what he should eat for dinner, he needs to hold the idea when he is assessing the options.A person is always free to choose to either keep or give up holding the idea (or the thinking process developed from that idea) at any time.This ability, I argue, is from the agent and is not causally determined.No one can force a person to hold or not to hold on to certain ideas apart from the agent himself/herself.Free will thus arises.It is completely up to the agent.Without the main idea, a person is likely to fall into mind wandering.No matter a person is making decision or performing an action, the agent should always follow the logic development of the main idea.If a person does not follow, it is his choice and he will need to be responsible for it.Ultimately, one of the most important purposes of free will is to choose to abide the morally right things.At the end, I will illustrate a possible way to reconcile the mechanical world view and the agent-causation free will ability.I argue that the ability to hold or not to hold on to an idea does not contradict with the findings in neuroscience, psychology or even physics.In conclusion, I think this model can reconcile the findings from various areas and is crucial in understanding human mind.