Do We Have Free Will?
Chapter 3
What is Determinism?
People and objects
- What happens if you hit a ball at the pool table?
- If you could measure everything accurately enough, you would be able to predict exactly where every ball ends up
- Are our lives like this?
People and objects
- The behaviour of objects is determined by physical forces - they have no choice in their behaviour
- People (and maybe other animals too) seem to be different
- We have appear to be able to choose what we do
Rehoboam
Rehoboam is a Quantum AI computer system owned and operated by the Incite corporation. It is used for the social engineering of whole populations. Rehoboam’s main function is to impose an order to human affairs by careful manipulation and prediction of the future made possible by analysis of the large data set Incite have collected.
Determinism and/or free will?
Determinism and/or free will?
- Human behavior
- Dualism and free will
- Why does mind being a different substance help with the problem?
- Key Term
- Determinism
- Free Will
Determinism and free will
- Determinism is the idea that everything in the world is determined by physical forces
- Paul Nunez has a much better probabilistic definition:
- a range of positions in which future events are fully or mostly determined by current conditions.
- Paul Nunez has a much better probabilistic definition:
- Free-will is the idea that we have a choice
Problems with Free-Will
Is free will an illusion?:
- We appear to ourselves to have free will, but perhaps it is just an illusion
Quantum mechanics
- Quantum mechanics & probabilistic determination don’t help
- We still don’t have any choice
- Having apparent “choice” determined by a chance event is still being determined by something else
- Key Term
- Quantum mechanics
The homunculus in the Cartesian theatre
- An homunculus is a small being sitting in another one watching what is going on and deciding to act
- The homunculus is in a Cartesian theatre where all sensory information is displayed
The benefits of believing in free will
- If it is an illusion, what are the advantages of believing that we have free will?
- It enables us to tell a story about our lives - Wegner
- It affects how we behave (maybe?)
Compatibilism
- Compatibilism is the idea that free will is compatible with determinism after all
- But how?
- Key Term
- Compatibilism
Behavior and Making Decisions
Environmental effects on behaviour
- Our behaviour is clearly determined by many facets of the environment (maybe) We are the sum of our genes and past
Crime and punishment
- Moral responsibility (maybe) The role of psychology in understanding crime
Punishment
- What is the purpose of punishment if someone had no choice?
Deterrence
- Should we punish or treat psychopaths?
- Differences in the structure of the amygdala in people with psychopathy
Deciding to act
Libet’s experiments on “voluntary” movement
- 2-stage model
Libet’s experiments on “voluntary” movement
Libet’s experiments on “voluntary” movement
Libet’s experiments on “voluntary” movement
- Criticisms of Libet’s experiment
- Experience of “will” is subtle or vague
- A clock is not precise
- Large signal when person doesn’t even move
- More in brain involved than SMA
- Simplistic
Measuring brain activity with EEG
- We can measure action and apparent decision making with brain imaging techniques
Involuntary action
- Skill and habit
- driving
- brain surgery
- Psychological compulsions
- tics, anxious behaviors, etc.
Alien hand syndrome
- When the hand is not under the control of the mind
Skill and habit
- With more practice at a skill, actions change from voluntary to automatic
Compulsions
We sometimes feel compelled to do things against our will
OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)
Summary
- Free will is the sense that we are in control of our destinies and can choose between alternatives
- But in a deterministic universe, how can this feeling be anything other than an illusion?