L10 and L11 - Free Will

Question 1

What is determinism?

Answer 1

The belief that a determinate set of conditions can only produce one possible outcome given the fixed laws of nature

Question 2

What is universal causation?

Answer 2

Assume everything that happens has a cause

Question 3

What is causal necessity?

Answer 3

Given the total set of conditions only one outcome is possible

Question 4

What is Newton’s clockwork universe?

Answer 4

States that you can predict where things are going

Question 5

What is causal determinism?

Answer 5

Every event is caused by a previous event

Question 6

What is the principle of alternate possibilities?

Answer 6

It states that you can’t be held morally responsible for something unless you could have done otherwise

Question 7

What is incompatibilism?

Answer 7

the belief that determinism is incompatible with free will

Question 8

What are the three stances on free will

Answer 8

Hard Determinists -believe determinism is true
Libertarians - Believe determinism is false but if determinism is false than events are not subject to cause and effect
Compatabilists - believe there is no conflict between free will and determinism, the clash arrives from a mis definition, in fact freedom is that we have the option to have done otherwise if things were slightly different

Question 9

What is cartesian dualism?

Answer 9

The ‘solution’ to incompatibilism. We have a non-physical mind that helps us make decisions when physics won’t allow it

not really followed anymore

Question 10

What is interactionism?

Answer 10

A modern form of dualism in which the mind is the piano player and the brain is the piano

no evidence

Question 11

What is reductionism?

Answer 11

This opposes dualism, saying that mental states are always brain states therefore physical states. Everything comes from he brain therefore it makes no sense to distinguish between conscious perception and reflexes

Question 12

What is the bereitschaftspotential?

Answer 12

The ‘readiness’ potential in which the electrical activity in the brain increases long before the conscious decision.

Question 13

Outline Patrick Haggards work

Answer 13

He based his work on the Libet test. Subjects watched the hand of a special clock, and they chose to stop the clock when they wanted and then they were asked when they made the decision to stop this clock, this showed that the brain increased in electrical activity before the feeling of making a decision

Question 14

What are the main problems with Patrick Haggards work?

Answer 14

The clock is moving very rapidly, therefore how can we be sure when they decided to make the movement?
There is already an increase in conscious decision making
There is alot of temporal compensation in order to feel spontaneity

Question 15

What is indeterminism?

Answer 15

It states that the fundamental laws of quantum physics are probabilistic not deterministic

Question 16

Outline what young’s double slit experiment showed

Answer 16

the electron beam created an interference pattern similar to waves however when the process was measured the electron beam went back to acting like particles. the presence of an observor altered the electron beam function

Question 17

What is the Heisenberg principle?

Answer 17

If you determine one aspect about an object you lose other information

Question 18

What did Hawking radiation show?

Answer 18

It showed that not everything occurs in a set way

Question 19

What is Hawking radiation?

Answer 19

Sometimes atoms appear, and then the anti-matter and matter fuse and destroy one another.

If this happens in a black hole, the positive one would escape and the negative one would go into the black hole therefore decreasing black hole mass

Question 20

What is Bell’s Theorem?

Answer 20

No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all of the predictions of quantum mechanics

Question 21

What is double incompatibilism?

Answer 21

Determinism rules out freedom
Randomness doesn’t make us free either
Therefore freedom does not exist

Question 22

What is the harvard law of animal behaviour?

Answer 22

An animal will behave any way it damn well pleases

Question 23

How were drosophila used to test decision making?

Answer 23

they were glued to a torque meter in an environment devoid of any triggers therefore the fies brain ahd the ability to be spontaneous
Found that there is still behavioural variability in a constant stimulus situation indicating that these are actions and not responses.

Question 24

What are the three kinds o choice systems?

Answer 24

Linear - predictable and repeatable
Random - no predictability or repeatability
Non-linear - no predictability but has repeatability

Question 25

What is the butterfly effect?

Answer 25

It states that a very small difference in input can lead to extreme differences in output

Question 26

What is the logistic map?

Answer 26

A polynomial mapping system that shows how choatic behaviour can arise froma simple non-linear dynamical equation.

Exponential decay of predicatability with forecasting time

Question 27

Is aplysis biting an action or response?

Answer 27

An action as it occurs with and without stimuli