Free Will, Free Won't?

[Whateverist]

I know all about the subconscious but I'm saying you're mistaken in thinking that the subconscious somehow commands us. We can consciously override an suggestions it gives us with the higher part of our brain function. It's this part of the brain that allows us to have freewill. The lower animals may well lack this ability.

There was a psychological experiment whose results made a big impression on me. Apparently a person agreed to be hypnotized on stage and once hypnotized was given the post hypnotic suggestion to unscrew the light bulb in the lamp directly above where they were sitting on stage at a specified time. He was also directed not to recall receiving the command. When the subject was taken out of the hypnotic state he continued chatting with the hypnotist on stage .. until the time specified. Then the subject got up and unscrewed the bulb. The hypnotist asked him why he did that. The subject spontaneously came up with a rationale which he hadn't been given by the hypnotist and neither was the subject aware of fabricating it himself. Nonetheless he gave a plausible sounding reason.

This would seem to indicate that when we are fully conscious we are not always aware why we do what we do. The reasons we produce may at times be a narrative which has more to do with justifying our actions than choosing them. Of course we do not normally receive post hypnotic suggestions. But the experiment would seem to indicate we may not always be able to recognize our true motives.

Sorry I can't remember the source for the experiment but I heard of it in a college psychology course. But I think it is food for thought. I agree with you that there are probably many decisions we make which are not at all determined unconsciously. However I suspect there are plenty more decisions we make which are fairly predictable given who we are. I also agree that it is not at all disagreeable to lack the freedom to choose freely in cases where only one choice is really coherent given who you are. But then I think there is plenty that we do during the day that is essentially done on auto-pilot. Sometimes conscious input is neither required nor sought by our mental activity. The mammals that we are can quite well make many small decisions without bringing the issues to conscious awareness. Conscious awareness, especially that involving discursive thought, is an add on to an intact and efficient mammal brain. Conscious 'us' is not the total 'us'. The buck does not always stop with us. However, and especially when not much rides on the decision, we are entirely left to our conscious best devices to make a decision. Not every decision we make as human beings probably even registers as important to our basic mammalian mind. In those cases, if we don't don't consciously decide, it won't get done.