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originally posted in:Psykana Librarius
originally posted in: [Discussion Thread] Free Will
4/14/2015 4:45:25 PM
1
Yes*. *I believe in causality. This implies there is no form of external control over the "decisions" made by humans, be it pre-ordained destiny or space magic. That said, our decisions are largely a result of chemicals, determining what actions to take. Philosophy kicks in at that point, requiring one to define if the involvement of these chemicals constitute a portion of the decision, like gasoline being a part of a car, or are they a form of external influence on the biological machine of our super- and sub-conscience. I don't wish to really spend much time defining that, but I will leave with an interesting point. Recently listened to an episode of Radiolab in which they took brain scans of people as they were asked questions of extreme moral dilemma ('could you kill your child if it would save a village' sort of scenarios). Those able to provide an affirmative answer had some interesting results: the parts of the brain dealing with instinct and 'conscious' choice were lighting up in equal portions, suggesting a moral conflict...until two small lobes right behind the eyes, parts of the frontal cortex responsible for our humanistic consciousness, lit up and "squelched" the instinct portions, reducing the activity in the brain in those regions. Found that to be amazing.
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  • Edited by Kody: 1/16/2016 10:22:03 AM
    That would lead me to suppose free will does not exist though. Free means 100% in this context. Any predetermining factor erases free will. I assume there are levels of will power across individuals; the ability to "cancel" a conditioned response being a threshold. Another story on Radiolab (great show!) had a German neuroscientist on who supposed that what we call free will (or accountability/responsibility/discipline) is actually our ability to cancel an impulse. He used an example that wasn't convincing as much as it was interesting, and talked about how a lot of people, when standing on a ledge, will be more scared of jumping than falling. I've noticed myself the impulse to imagine jumping which then leads to the impulse to jump, which I feel complete control over "cancelling", but noticing the impulse is what causes the mild anxiety that eclipses the fear of accidentally falling.

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