Preview

Free Will Research Paper

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1594 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Free Will Research Paper
In this paper I will argue Sam Harris's opinion on free will is not comprehensive in terms of philosophical view because he does not pay attention on the role played by the spirit level of a person cooperating with the human nerve system; because if there is no such thing as "Free will", we cannot take responsibility of our own action. Whether free will exist is a controversial question philosopher have debated on for many years. Like Sam Harris's opinion that free will is mostly derived from the neurological factors and subconscious, neurologists different from philosophical speculation methods, mainly focus on the experimental way to examine the internal change of brain, the brain of the subject was scanned with brain imaging techniques …show more content…
In late twentieth century, the development of neuroscience has enabled scientists to reveal complex mechanism and function in brain, in this context, Libet assumed that a consciousness mind is nothing more than an illusion in people's experience. Experiment were conducted to prove his Hypothesis. In the experiment he connects an electroencephalogram with the subject's brain, the subjects' EEG(Electroencephalography) response was measured and the subjects were measured simultaneously with electromyography for muscle response. subjects were required to spontaneously move their fingers. After subjects are aware of their intentions and decide what to, it took 200 milliseconds of time to make a slight stretching of the fingers while the signal that connects the brain shows that the potential activity is preceded by finger movements more than 500 milliseconds, which shows that before 300 milliseconds or so when subjects are aware of their actions, the brain produced a preparatory behavior of the electrical activity. [1] Therefore, Libet concluded that "the cerebral cortex of the subjects begin to operate first, follow by the consciousness of the subject to make decision to stretch fingers, this shows that a conscious brain Is not the controller of the behavior "[2]. For most neuroscientists, the results of this experiment is exactly the opposite of their previous …show more content…
Neuroscience scientist Walter Glannon pointed out that the interpretation of human behavior must include unconscious physical state and conscious mental state, as well as our original behavior due to the external event. However, the view of the illusion of free will thinks that it is the brain material implement all of the causal effects, the process of spiritual level needs to rely on the process of neural level. The intention and decision is nothing but perception associated with the preparation of brain activity. This perception is illusory and cannot trigger us to make an action. Gragan criticizes that he believes that the state of mind involves the desire to act, the intention, and the execution of the choice or decision of the act. When the plan and the idea change, the implementation of the different behavior plan Will be contrary to the original intention, it involves the implementation of the choice of the situation. Intention means a plan to do something, decide or choose and execute a plan or act. The desire relates to both the brain's neurotic material and the conscious spiritual level, where the nerve material refers to all the regulation of thought and behavior of the cortex and son Cortical brain area. The concept of any reasonable free will is consistent with the state of mind, and the state of mind can influence the causal effect, ie So that the practice of neuroscience can explain the reasons for the material in the brain, nor can the table The

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    including “psychologist and neuroscientists” ( Tierney 1), deny free will and concludes that they believe that as “an excuse to behave as one likes” ( Tierney 2). Moreover, he states that there are believers, who believe that people have control over their actions. Tierney uses life examples…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The movie ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ allows you to follow David Norris as he acknowledges his life is determined, but fights for the ownership of free will. George Nolfi opens the idea of determinism and free will in this exciting movie. To explore the thought of determinism and free will, we traveled through the thought of Christianity, scientists, and physiology. It seems that the answer will never get to be known to mankind, and maybe we aren’t ready to know…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rene Descartes was a brilliant thinker, philosopher, scientist, physiologist, and early psychologist whose theory of mind-body connection has become an integral part of modern medicine (Goodwin, 2008). His dualist view, asserted the mind was ethereal and autonomous in relation to the physical and strictly material body, and to account for their interaction, he proposed the pineal gland was where the intersection of the two transpired (Goodwin, 2008). He theorized the mechanistic, reflexive nature of certain human behaviors, although his one caveat was that reasoning and thoughts were unique properties of the human soul (Wickens, 2005). Descartes 's work laid some of the fundamental parameters for modern thought in psychology, encouraged further research on the localization of brain function, and promoted further experimental research of the nervous system (Goodwin, 2008).…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The brain is a powerful, mystical part of every living being. It controls what we think, what we do, and how we act. Every day we are faced with decisions. As a human being, we are given the intelligence and brain to make conscious decisions, whether they are good decisions or bad decisions. We have the free will to make them, but is our decision truly conscious? There are many things that influence or determine our behavior. The brain works in magical ways, sometimes with reason and sometime without. Many times we may question our behavior. Libet's experiment looked at the brain and hot it affects our decisions to act or not act, which is basically our free will. Benjamin Libet wanted to explore whether our free will was really free or tied…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Sam Harris’s Free Will, he states, “free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making. Thoughts and intentions…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Although the “free will” problem envelops a spectrum of ideas, I agree with the following belief: “The folk are compatibilists about free will.” While there are, of course, incompatibilists and indeterminists, for the most part, the general population consists of compatibilists. Now, I know experimental philosophy has a problem with the use of generalizations without actual statistics, but throughout this paper, I will explain exactly why the world revolves in a generally compatibilist manner.…

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In “The Mind’s Eye,” Oliver Sacks opens up by asking three similar questions: “To what extent are we – our experiences, our reactions – shaped, predetermined, by our brains, and to what extent do we shape our own brains? Does the mind run the brain or the brain the mind – or, rather, to what extent does one run the other? To what extent are we the authors, the creators, of our own experiences?” (214) These three questions refer to the same question of the limit of control between the mind and brain. These questions begin to cast doubts on the belief of the brain being a “hard-wired” organ. They ensue an argument of self-finding; can our minds change the thought process of the brain? By answering the main question…

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Determinism is a controversial topic to free will with multiple theories proving and disproving it. As printed in The Collins Cobuild Learner's Dictionary, determinism is defined as “...the belief that all actions and events result from other actions, events, or situations, so people cannot in fact choose what to do.” Meaning, all life choices are predetermined from the minute we are born, to the minute we die. In contrast, “freewill is an individual taking control and responsibility for his/her actions according to his personal will” (Freewill Verses Determinism). People who believe in Free will, accept the idea that life is not predetermined, and they can independently act however they see fit. Free will and determinism can be further simplified and have multiple differences as well as similarities.…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gary Gutting, the author of the article, What Makes Free Will Free? deliberates that we do not have free choice as we assumed which a researcher confirmed. By free choice, this means the conviction that our conduct is dictated by our own unrestrained choice and that we have complete power over our activities. Also, Gary Gutting examined various thoughts on determinism as the researchers suggested. Determinism refers to the conviction that all human conduct or any other occurrences have a cause. This is opposed to a person's will to accomplish an action. Gary Gutting discussed what David Hume, a philosopher, believed and the belief of David Hume is that both determinism and free choice are possible, they are compatible with each…

    • 1857 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Most people like to think that human beings possess free will, at least with regard to a wide range of actions. In contrast, however, some believe that certain people lack the aspect of free will. Many great theorists have contended that the reason some people may, indeed, lack free will is not so much due to the determined nature of their choices and behavior, but rather due to the fact that their behavior is not responsive to their choices in such…

    • 3184 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The question over the existence of free will has raged on over many years. Many feel that God, saw an omniscient being, must be aware of all that has happened and all that will happen. Supporters of the cosmological argument would suggest that everything has a cause and that god was the initial cause, “the unmoved mover” (Tomas Aquinus), this would support the idea that humanity has no free will as everything is pre determined. This highlights the idea that humanity is not free, and even when we think we have a choice our actions have already been determined.…

    • 2022 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The essay will discuss about the mind and brain identity theory. This theory outlines the relationship how human mind and the brain function in attribute to neural brain processes. This theory can be said to be a version of materialism which is a type of state a materialist would consider the consciousness or human mind to be brain processes. All emotions felt by the human mind such as sadness, anger, pain, love can all be said to be merely a physical interpretation of a stimulus and signal of the brain (P. Lloyd, 1953). There has been much debate as to the significance of the mind in comparison to the brain as such that is the mind a mere less side effect of brain processes. At least, whether the mind really has a purpose on the influence of behaviour. However we do speak of the mind and brain as distinct…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arguments Against Dualism

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages

    It is a claim that the world is physical, and as such, there is no spiritual, mental separation of the human mind and brain (Smart, 2012, p.1). Since there is no difference between the two, the human mind and brain are the same entity (Smart, 2012, p.1). For if “sensation X is identical to brain process Y then if Y is between my ears and is straight or circular … then the sensation X is between my ears and is straight or circular” (Smart, 2014, p.3). It is maintained, that the workings of the mind equals the workings of the brain (Smart, 2012, p.1). Human beings are only human, physical bodies. Therefor human being’s behaviours, judgements and responses are all an action of the brain, which could also be called the mind. Meaning the mind is explainable, according to laws of physics and chemistry (Calef, 2015,…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Freud and the Unconscious

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Few theories hold more intrigue than that of human psychology. Throughout history, many have sought to decode the structure of the mind. Amongst those who were determined to investigate the nature of psychic material, one of the most prominent remains Sigmund Freud (also known as “the archaeologist of the mind”). Freud had very pronounced views on the innate components of human psychology, within which one idea remained central - the ‘unconscious’ mind; he uses this concept to make sense of phenomenons such as that of parapraxes.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Neuropsicologia

    • 2711 Words
    • 11 Pages

    A neuropsicologia é o estudo da relação entre as funções neurais e psicológicas. A principal pergunta da neuropsicologia é qual área específica do cérebro controla ou media as funções psicológicas. O principal método de estudo usado pelos neuropsicólogos é o estudo do comportamento ou mudanças cognitivas que acompanham lesões em partes específicas do cérebro. Estudos experimentais com indivíduos normais também são comuns.…

    • 2711 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays