Lecture 12

Question 1

free will

Answer 1

defined as the ability to make conscious choices when faced with options; to have control over your actions, which makes you responsible

Question 2

reflexes

Answer 2

involuntary, are automatic

Question 3

actions

Answer 3

voluntary, are intentional

Question 4

the principle of alternative possibilities

Answer 4

states that you are responsible for your actions if only you could have done otherwise. (necessary for free will to exist)

Question 5

the ultimate cause principle

Answer 5

states that you should be the only reason for making a certain choice. if something else made you take a certain decision, then you are not the ultimate cause of your action. (necessary for free will to exist)

Question 6

determinism

Answer 6

this view states that at any moment there is only one physical possible future; you do not have the ability to do otherwise. the future is determined and free will does not exist

Question 7

dualism

Answer 7

states that the soul is immaterial, and it cannot be influenced by physical events. however there are cases that show that dualism goes against science and that our will has a relation to our physical make up

Question 8

hard determinism

Answer 8

is a materialistic view in which free will and determinism cannot exist in the same universe, thus determinism is true and free will does not exist

Question 9

libertarianism

Answer 9

is another materialist view in which incompatibilism is true again, thus, free will exists and determinism is false

Question 10

compatibilism

Answer 10

is also materialistic view in which both determinism and free will exist at the same time

Question 11

benjamin libet

Answer 11

ran experiments in order to find out what the role of consciousness in actions is.

Question 12

libet’s experiment

Answer 12

in his experiment, he measured the conscious decision to move, the start of the movement and the readiness potential. he found that the decision to perform the action was already visible in the brain 350ms before the conscious decision to perform said action.

Question 13

what is the role of conscious will?

Answer 13

we are not free to do something, but rather we are free not to do it (Libet)

Question 14

based of the position we have already taken, how can we interpret the experiment?

Answer 14

• it shows nothing valuable
• it confirms the idea that free will makes no sense
• it shows that free will actually works as a veto mechanism
• experiment shows that free will does not exist, thus consciousness does not play a role in behavior

Question 15

arguments against compatibilism

Answer 15

compatibilism should rethink the notion of free will because two principles of free will entail rejection of determinism

Question 16

arguments against libertarianism

Answer 16

libertarianism leads us to dualism which we said is not a scientific theory, thus, it cannot reject determinism or ignore physics

Question 17

quantum physics

Answer 17

tells us that the world is not determined, at a subatomic level some events are probabilistic. this means that free will is possible

Question 18

arguments against hard determinism

Answer 18

hard determinism should be able to explain our phenomenology, but this is not a strong argument considering that the what-it-is-likeness stems from our intuition and we know that we could be mistaken about our own conscious experiences

Question 19

the illusion of no will

Answer 19

when it feels as if we are not acting out of our free will but in fact we are

Question 20

the illusion of free will

Answer 20

when it feels as if we exercise our free will but in fact we are not

Question 21

moral consequence

Answer 21

if we reject free will, this comes at a price - we become amoral creatures who are not responsible for their own actions.

we could still live as if we were free (free will factionalism) or we could accept the illusion of free will (it may lead to you becoming a better person)