(October 12, 2015 at 4:42 pm)Faith No More Wrote: I think a true understanding of the nature of our will will eventually come from neuroscience. Different regions are responsible for different parts of decision making, but I'm guessing the answer will be somewhere in the cerebral cortex, which is a part of the brain that is a recent evolutionary step only seen in mammals.
The problem I see with saying that we do have free will, even in the sense of the OP, is that we have no way of knowing if our will isn't beholden to our physical brain structure like other traits. We feel like we make decisions when presented with choices, but we have no way to prove that we could have made a different decision. We choose to drink that scotch, but unless we could exactly replicate that moment in time, we don't know that you could have chosen not to drink that scotch. We have no way of knowing that the parts of our brain that are responsible for making that decision weren't structured physically in a manner that would require us to make a certain choice given certain circumstances.
I feel that at this point it's speculative to say either way on the issue, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the more we learn, the less likely it will appear that we are making any choices at all.
For sure it's speculative and there has been loads of research in neuroscience that is truly fascinating. Quick question:
Do you think you chose to write your post? Or was it the result of the physical structure of your brain and the level of hormones/chemicals at the time your brain processed the text in which you felt compelled to respond?
I'm always intrigued by the reductionist point of view that everything is explainable when reduced, or that bottom up explanation if you will. In most cases, it's true but not all.
We are not made happy by what we acquire but by what we appreciate.
