Task 9 Flashcards
What is meant by the basic argument ?
- we cannot truly/ultimately be morally responsible for our actions
- That means -> no punishment or reward is ever ultimately just
What is the main logic behind the basic argument ?
- Nothing can be causa sui
- In in order to be truly morally responsible for one’s actions, one would have to be causa sui
- Therefore nothing can be truly morally responsible
What does causa sui mean ?
- Nothing can be cause of itself
What was the main claim of the article ?
-people can change in certain respects, but they cannot supposed to change themselves in such a way as to become truly morally responsible for the way that they are regarding there action
On which four arguments does the main claim build up on ?
- One is the way one is as a result of heredity and experience
- You can not change at any later stage to become truly moral responsible
- If you try to change at an early stage the succes depend on heredity and experiences
- If changes are not due to heredity and experiences they are due to random factors of which you can not be responsible for either
What would happen if we would have true moral repsonsibility ?
- if we have TMR then it makes sense to reward/punish someone based on there action
Why do we believe that truly moral responsability exist ?
- Morally responsibilities situations of choice occur regularly in human life
- This gives u the feeling to be a self conscious agent that can think about what to do
How can we also define the basi argument ? (second defintion)
- Premise one: You do what you do, in any situation in which you find yourself, because of the way you are.
- Premise two: To be truly morally responsible for what you do you must be truly responsible for the way you are
In order to reject the basic argument what would u have to do ?
- you need to reject premise two since premise one is allways true
Why would u have a chance to reject premise 2 in the basic argument ?
- It can be rejected since “truly responsible” and ‘truly morally responsible’ can be defined in many ways
What is meant by determinism ?
- all events (incl. human action) are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will
- You own will is not in charge of your action
What is the main motor regdarding the free will discussion ?
- Moral responsability
What are the three views which tried to reject the moral basic arguments ?
- Compatibilists
- Libertarian
- Third
Explain the compatibists view on the basic argument:
- One can truly be morally responsible even if determinism is true
- One is truly responsible as long as the actions are not caused by a certain set of constraints
- Belief that one doesn’t need to be truly responsible for how one is
Explain the Libertarian view on the basic argument:
- believe that freedom and moral responsibility are incompatible with determinism
- Dterminism is wrong since we are free and moraly responsible
Explai the “third” view on the basic argument:
- Accept that we can not be ultimately be held responsible of ones character personality and motivtaional structure (CPM) no matter if determinism is true or false
- But: One can still truly be responsible for one’s decisions and actions
- Self is independent of CPM
What is the problem with the compatibilists view ?
- fails to account to any sort of true moral responsibility
What is the problem with the libertarian view ?
- Moral responsibility depends on the falsity of determinism but determinism isn’t falsifiable
What is the problem with the third view on the basic argument ?
- Whatever the self decides it does that bc the way it is ! (CPM) and S are not independent
How are voluntary acts iniated /prepared ?
- via the unconscious cerebral proccesses before conscious intention appears
What is the main function of consciousness if it does not iniated voluntary acts ?
- It select and controls the volitional process via vetoing or triggering the final motor outcome
How is the preeceded decison stage in the unconscious called ?
- RP = readiness potential
What is meant by readiness potential ?
- slow negative shift in electrical potential generated by the brain (SMA)
- Before motor act
- You have an RP 1 and a RP 2
What is meant by RP 1 ?
- RP 1 was recorded when the subject was planing to act
- 1050ms before motor act
- also called: “Ramp like RP”
What is meant by the RP 2:
- RP that are self-initiated endogenous volitional process
- 550ms before motor act
In the experiment how was the start of the muscle activity being meassured ?
- muscle activity is signalled by the onset of the electromyogram
- meassured with an EMG,
What is the definition of voluntary action and will ?
- It arises endogenously
- it is not externally restricted which would effect the initiation and performance
- One FEELS introspectively that they are performing the act voluntarily
What is meant by endogenou?
- something arises due to an internal source
What method did libet use in order to identfy the RP ?
- Patient had to flex the fingers at a freely choosen time period
- They had to pay close intention to the onset of the urge (W)
- They should not plan the act it should be spontaneous
What is meant by “W” ?
- experience of the first awareness of wanting to move
- Need to be indicated by the subject via remebering a light spot going around the clock
How long was the “W” present before the actual motor act ?
- 200 ms
- Notiming difference between RP 1 and RP 2
To increase validity of the experience what additional method was being used ?
- A Skin stimulus was delivered at an irregular, randomized time after the start of each trial and the subject had to report the timing of the stimulus
- This was used to proove that the subject keeps the attention during the trial
What is meant by triggering the volitional process ?
- It is a conscious process
- It is about comleting the volitional process
How does libit explain free will ?
- Freew ill is different to what we would think it is since it is restricted
- It is more about selecting among given options instead of initiating options
Name one evidence regarding the veto in conscious process:
- MP = Motor potential
What is meant by the motor potential ?
- it is an activity which which occurd 50ms before the start of the motor act
- RP still occured or was shown even though no muscle activation occured
Name one evidence mentioned by subjects regarding the veto capaility:
- conscious urge to act appeared but was sometimes suppressed
Where in the brain can we identfy the RP ?
- Supplementary motor area (SMA)
What was the method of the second study ?
- Test was under an fmri scan
- Fixate on centre of screen where a stream of letters was presented
- At some point chose to press one of two buttons (left/right)
- In parallel they should remember the present letter when the motor decision was consciously made
- After pressing the button, a response mapping screen appears with four choices
- press the second button when u identified the letter in the map
- new trail start over
What is meant by a pattern based detector ?
- were trained to predict the specific outcome of a subject’s motor intention by recognising characteristic local brain patterns associated with each choice
- Will the subject press the right or left button ?
According to the second study when was the intention of the act being reported (W) ?
- 1 second before movement
When on average did the patient according to the second study pressed the button ?
- 22 seconds after the trail started
Which brain activites encoded the outcome of the subject’s motor decision ?
- M1 and SMA
- It was during the execution phase
Which brain region encoded the
subject’s motor decision prior to the conscious decision ?
- frontopolar cortex, BA10
- Parietal cortex
What is so special about the frontopolar cortex, BA10 ?
- It is the first cortical stage at which decision was made
- 7 seconds before
What is so special about the parietal cortex?
- Especially the precuneus in the parietal lobe
- was involved in storage of the decison untill reached awareness
- Second stage
How long in advance can we predict an outcome of an action ?
- 10 seconds in advance if we take additionall to the brain regions the bold activity into account
How can we predict the timing of the
decision ? (so when will u press the button ?)
- 5s in advance
- based on pre-SMA and SMA
What is the conclusion that timing of a decision and knowing what decsion to make can be predicted via two different brain areas ?
- That there is a double dissociation
What is meant by double dissociation ?
- Certain brain region are shapin the outcome (predict what action will take place)
- brain regions determining the timing of a motor decision
- But: At later stages (right before conscious decision) both regions decode both
What is the overall conclusion of the second article in regard to the first article (libet study) ?
- SMA is not the ultimate cortical decision stage where conscious intention is initiated
Why was the second study better then libet study ? (three reasons)
- It is possible to detect more brain region which were involved in initaiotion of motor action (better timing)
- Allowed to separately investigate each brain region (how much each brain region contribute)
- Allowed to identify leading brain activity which predicts outcomes
