L10 and L11 - Free Will Flashcards
What is determinism?
The belief that a determinate set of conditions can only produce one possible outcome given the fixed laws of nature
What is universal causation?
Assume everything that happens has a cause
What is causal necessity?
Given the total set of conditions only one outcome is possible
What is Newton’s clockwork universe?
States that you can predict where things are going
What is causal determinism?
Every event is caused by a previous event
What is the principle of alternate possibilities?
It states that you can’t be held morally responsible for something unless you could have done otherwise
What is incompatibilism?
the belief that determinism is incompatible with free will
What are the three stances on free will
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
What is cartesian dualism?
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
What is interactionism?
A modern form of dualism in which the mind is the piano player and the brain is the piano
no evidence
What is reductionism?
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
What is the bereitschaftspotential?
The ‘readiness’ potential in which the electrical activity in the brain increases long before the conscious decision.
Outline Patrick Haggards work
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
What are the main problems with Patrick Haggards work?
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
What is indeterminism?
It states that the fundamental laws of quantum physics are probabilistic not deterministic
Outline what young’s double slit experiment showed
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
What is the Heisenberg principle?
If you determine one aspect about an object you lose other information
What did Hawking radiation show?
It showed that not everything occurs in a set way
What is Hawking radiation?
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
What is Bell’s Theorem?
No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all of the predictions of quantum mechanics
What is double incompatibilism?
Determinism rules out freedom
Randomness doesn’t make us free either
Therefore freedom does not exist
What is the harvard law of animal behaviour?
An animal will behave any way it damn well pleases
How were drosophila used to test decision making?
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.
What are the three kinds o choice systems?
Linear - predictable and repeatable
Random - no predictability or repeatability
Non-linear - no predictability but has repeatability
What is the butterfly effect?
It states that a very small difference in input can lead to extreme differences in output
What is the logistic map?
A polynomial mapping system that shows how choatic behaviour can arise froma simple non-linear dynamical equation.
Exponential decay of predicatability with forecasting time
Is aplysis biting an action or response?
An action as it occurs with and without stimuli
