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Scoop.it!
A classic experiment that suggests the brain is aware of our urge to act spontaneously before we are might have been misinterpreted... 
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Scoop.it!
From
bigthink
More about FREE WILL: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?q=free+will
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The experience of free will is more basic than any other. Everyone naturally feels he or she is the author of his or her choices and character. Articles about NEUROSCIENCE: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?tag=neuroscience
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From
reason
Pondering the neuroscience of moral platitudes, free will, and sacred values. Articles about NEUROSCIENCE: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?page=1&tag=neuroscience
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For the social network to function, each person assigns each other person responsibility for his or her actions. There are rules for traffic that exist and are only understood and adopted when cars interact. It is the same for human interactions. Just as we would not try to understand traffic by studying the mechanics of cars, we should not try to understand brains to understand the idea of responsibility. Responsibility exists at a different level of organization: the social level, not in our determined brains. Articles about NEUROSCIENCE: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?page=1&tag=neuroscience
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Michael Gazzaniga, one of the world's leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, argues, "We can understand brains to the nth degree, but that's not going to in any way interfere with the fact that taking responsibility in a social n...
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Do we have autonomy, or are our choices preordained? Is that a false choice? And what, if anything, does physics have to say about that? Articles about FREE WILL: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?page=1&tag=free%20will
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Our sense of our own freedom results from our not paying close attention to what it is like to be ourselves in the world.
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Science fiction, science fact: reports from the frontiers of physics What is time? What is space? How did the Universe start? Does infinity exist? Join Plus and FQXi on a journey exploring these and many more questions on the frontiers of physics. What do you think is science fiction and what is science fact? Find out more about scientific developments in these areas, ask your own questions and debate the answers!
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For all the progress physics has made in the last 100 or so years, it has not provided an answer to the free will question. Even quantum indeterminacy does not entirely kill off determinism. Quantum effects take place at tiny scales and whether they can affect the macroscopic world in a meaningful way is debatable. And as Conway has pointed out, there's always the possibility that we live in a "second time around Universe". The first time around, quantum events may have been random and peoples' choices may have been free, but if we live in a replay, then everything happens in a totally determined fashion. "In the end a completely deterministic world is not incompatible with quantum mechanics," says Zeilinger. "I would say either way is basically speculation, the claim that things are deterministic is speculation and the rest too. This simply is a wide open question."
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Whether free will exists or not, it maybe be helpful for individuals and society to believe in it. Studies show that people who doubt their ability to make free and independent decisions are less likely to give money to charity and more likely to cheat on exams. "Offering topical advice for New Year’s resolvers, experts say that you shouldn’t set yourself too many goals. Rather, establish good habits (give your moral muscle a regular workout), and commit yourself publicly to your targets."
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The field of neuroscience evolved so rapidly in the past twenty years that it will pose unprecedented challenges to the legal system in the decades to come, changing the way we understand crime and punishment, says neuro-pioneer Joy Hirsch, director of the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center at Columbia.
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From
www
You don't need to deliberate to be thoughtful, says commentator Alva Noë. In fact, it's better if you don't. We are at our most intelligent when we let the world guide us. And we can do this because we are expert at many things we take for granted.
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![[VIDEO] The Secret Lives of the Brain: David Eagleman LIVE on Big Think | Science News | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/M48RApmA0MEeW992BPhe-jl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
From
bigthink
Eagleman has referred to the brain as the body's "mission control center," arguing that the vast majority of our behavior is actually unconscious. If so much of our behavior is unconscious, we ask him, then why do we even have consciousness? What is the evolutionary purpose? "The brain is made up of many different subparts and systems always competing for control," he answered. Consciousness is an arbiter of these mechanisms. Articles about NEUROSCIENCE: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?tag=neuroscience
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If this demotion of free will is correct – and that’s a big if – then rights violations aren’t caused by people who decide to violate them. They are instead caused by their brains. This is a depressing idea because it implies that we can’t do much about rights violations, short of clinical or chemical interventions in the brain. It also implies that we can’t hold violators responsible for their actions, since it’s their brains rather than their conscious volition that is the real cause of those actions. Articles about NEUROSCIENCE: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?tag=neuroscience
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To Kandel, the research reflects a larger truth: that consciousness and decision-making, what we know of as the human mind, arises in the brain: "All mental functions, from the most trivial reflex to the most sublime creative experience, come from the brain." Articles about NEUROSCIENCE: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?page=1&tag=neuroscience
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Does free will exist, or are our decisions predetermined? In a series of articles, six scholars present arguments for and against the existence of free will. Articles about NEUROSCIENCE: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?page=1&tag=neuroscience
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The notion of free will is under attack again, this time from the advance of neuroscience. Anthony Gottlieb explains...
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We're not prisoners of our neural networks, either. "We can study cars and all their physical relationships and know exactly how they work," explains Gazzinga. "It in no way prepares us to understand traffic when they all get together and start interacting." Clearly, there's a balance between seeing people either as deterministic robots or as entirely in control of everything they do. "The way I sum it up is that brains are automatic, but people are free because people are joining the social group and in that group are laws to live by. We can understand brains to the nth degree, but it’s not going to, in any way, interfere with the fact that taking responsibility in a social network is done at that level."
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Because I have so much to say on neuroscience and free will, I've decided to break this up into a series. I believe it'll be a two to three part series, but it might be any number of posts. In this...
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What’s actually going on in the mind of an alcoholic as he or she goes through the process of recovery? What are the cognitive mechanics underlying the initial, angry rebelliousness and, later, the genuine commitment to a sober life?
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Thus, the very success of science can be viewed as evidence that free will exists. "In my view, if your theory says we don't have free will, then empirical evidence shows that your theory is wrong and you better go back and come up with a better one. I think that [reductionists] just haven't taken the time to properly look at emergence, complexity and how the mind works because if they had, they would not make such self-defeating statements that undermine the meaning of what they themselves are saying."
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In a major shake-up of scientists' understanding of what determines the fate of cells, researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have shown that cells have some control over their own destiny.
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Hardly a minute goes by in our lives when we don’t make them. Decisions can be as small as our choices of words or what to have for lunch, and they can be as big as how to plan for retirement or what treatment to choose for a disease. They can balance certainties against risks. They can balance short-term gratification against long-term benefits. They can clearly be right or wrong — but often enough, they involve likelihoods and possibilities that are uncertain, even in the light of all available information.
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