presuming the motions of the particles/molecules determine our choices — TheMadFool
[Can we] control the motion of particles/molecules in our brain before and during the making of choices, effectively granting us free will? — TheMadFool
Wilder Penfield's Myster of the MInd — Wayfarer
From a purely materialistic perspective and in a very basic, almost crude, sense, do we have the power to arrest the motion of particles/molecules in our brain presuming the motions of the particles/molecules determine our choices and the acts that should follow them? — TheMadFool
f we do possess such an ability, does it follow, by extension, that we can control the motion of particles/molecules in our brain before and during the making of choices, effectively granting us free will? — TheMadFool
Question 2: If we can delay acting out our choices after making them then doesn't that grant us some kind of free will or, if you like, pseudo-free-will? The lives of people are full of so-called missed opportunities which, to some extent, consist of times when the delay between a choice and acting out on that choice is longer than the temporal window-period during which our actions would've made a difference. For instance, if the tray with the two cans of Cola were to be offered to me by a waiter who was going to wait only for 5 seconds for me to pick a can up and I delayed the action of picking up the can for 10 seconds, the waiter would leave and I would be left without a drink, precisely what would've happened if I had gone against/defied my pre-programmed preferences. This is pseudo-free-will because I actually haven't gone against my programming, it's just that I failed to act within the allotted time. — TheMadFool
f we can delay acting out our choices after making them then doesn't that grant us some kind of free will or, if you like, pseudo-free-will? — TheMadFool
I think that depends on the degree of "will". It does appear that we are not all "equally constrained" though. Or "equally free" I guess — Pantagruel
I think in the trivially evident sense that some people appear to possess greater will-power or self-control than others — Pantagruel
I assume you are referring to the Benjamin Libet experiment, which detected indications that a subconscious choice had been made, a fraction of a second before the subject became aware of making the choice. His tentative interpretation was that the Brain had already made its choice, and later informed the conscious Mind of the decision. But, that interpretation has been criticized in detail by other scientists. So, I won't go into the tricky reasoning on both sides about the apparent delayed awareness after the action had been initiated.Question 1: What explains this delaying/deferring of actions even after choices have been made? — TheMadFool
lol. No biggie. Mind you, it is such a subjective phenomena, I don't know if you can ever provide a sufficient objective description, IMO. We know that there IS a line where we exercise our willpower, but between unanticipated situations where our responses are totally spontaneous and rote situations where perhaps we labour under a delusive self-perception, describing the exact placement of that line isn't straightforward. I do think we each have an intuitive awareness of it though.... — Pantagruel
But there's also this thing about higher order decisions such as choosing a college course, getting married, deciding to have kids, etc... These are decisions that require tons of planning and so a lot more "agency" is involved. — 8livesleft
I still cant see any reason to think it would be any more or less an instance of control than making a choice. — Janus
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