Free Will - AO3 Flashcards
Free will is just an illusion …
P - Deciding different courses of action may not actually be free will but give us the illusion of free will.
E - Skinner proposed that a person might choose ‘what car they might buy’ but this was determined by previous reinforcement experiences.
E - The idea of self-determination may only be relevant to individualistic societies only.
L - This suggests free will is a product of socialisation and isn’t ‘real’.
Research challenging free will…
P - Free will position received a significant blow from research done by Benjamin Libet (1983).
E - He recorded activity in motor areas of the brain before the person had a conscious awareness of the decision to move their finger.
E - Found the decision to move the finger was simply a pre-determined action.
L - However, other researchers have conducted similiar studies and found different results which support free will, so for the time being neuroscience still supports free will.
