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Free Will – Philosophers and Neuroscientists in Conversation - Oxford Scholarship Online
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Free Will: Philosophers and Neuroscientists in Conversation

Uri Maoz and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Abstract

What is free will? Can it exist in a determined universe? How can we determine who, if anyone, possesses it? Philosophers have been debating these questions for millennia. In recent decades neuroscientists have joined the fray with questions of their own. Which neural mechanisms could enable conscious control of action? What are intentional actions? Do contemporary developments in neuroscience rule out free will or, instead, illuminate how it works? Over the past few years, neuroscientists and philosophers have increasingly come to understand that both fields can make substantive contributions ... More

Keywords: free will, voluntary, decision, action, intention, consciousness, determinism, philosophy, responsibility, neuroscience

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2022 Print ISBN-13: 9780197572153
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2022 DOI:10.1093/oso/9780197572153.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

Uri Maoz, editor
Assistant Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Psychology, Chapman University

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, editor
Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics, Duke University

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

Dedication

Preface

List of Contributors

Part I Questions from Neuroscientists for Philosophers

Part I, Section I Questions about will

1 What is an intention?

Gideon Yaffe

2 What is a will?

Pamela Hieronymi

3 When is an action voluntary?

Pamela Hieronymi

Part I, Section II Questions about freedom

4 What is freedom?

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

5 What is free will?

Timothy O’Connor

6 Can there be free will in a determined universe?

Timothy O’Connor

7 Does free will come in degrees?

Jonathan Hall and Tillmann Vierkant

Part I, Section III Questions about scientific evidence

8 How can we determine whether or not we have free will?

Alfred R. Mele

9 What kind of neuroscientific evidence, if any, could determine whether anyone has free will?

Adina L. Roskies

10 What kind of behavioral experiments, if any, could determine whether anyone has free will?

Tim Bayne

11 Can a robot with artificial intelligence have free will?

Jonathan Hall and Tillmann Vierkant

Part I, Section IV Questions about consciousness

12 Do conscious decisions cause physical actions?

Ned Block

13 How is consciousness related to freedom of action or will?

Tim Bayne

Part I, Section V Questions about responsibility and reasons-responsiveness

14 How is responsibility related to free will, control, and action?

Gideon Yaffe

15 What are reasons?

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Part II Questions from Philosophers for Neuroscientists

Part II, Section I Questions about will

16 What are the main stages in the neural processes that produce actions?

Patrick Haggard and Elisabeth Parés-Pujolràs

17 Does the will correspond to any clearly delineated brain area or activity?

Gabriel Kreiman

18 How are the neural processes for deciding when to move similar to and different from those for deciding what or how to move?

Antonio Ivano Triggiani and Mark Hallett

19 How are arbitrary and deliberate decisions similar and different?

Jye lyn Bold, Liad Mudrik, and Uri Maoz

20 How do higher-level brain areas exert control over lower-level brain areas?

Mark Hallett

Part II, Section II Questions about intention

21 What are intentions and intentional actions?

Elisabeth Parés-Pujolràs and Patrick Haggard

22 What evidence is there that intentions are represented in the brain?

John-Dylan Haynes

23 What is known about the neural correlates of specific beliefs and desires that inform human choices?

Amber Hopkins and Uri Maoz

Part II, Section III Questions about consciousness

24 How can we determine whether or not an agent is conscious of a bit of information relevant to an action?

Liad Mudrik and Aaron Schurger

25 Which neural mechanisms could enable conscious control of action?

Jake Gavenas, Mark Hallett, and Uri Maoz

26 How does the absence of a consensus about the neural basis of consciousness and volition affect theorizing about conscious volition?

Amber Hopkins, Liad Mudrik, and Uri Maoz

Part II, Section IV Questions about neuroscience methods

27 How can we determine the precise timing of brain events related to action?

Mark Hallett and Aaron Schurger

28 How can we determine the precise timing of mental events related to action?

Sae Jin Lee, Sook Mun (Alice) Wong, Uri Maoz, and Mark Hallett

29 Are any neural processes truly random (or stochastic)?

Hans Liljenström

30 How can computational models help us understand free will?

Gabriel Kreiman, Hans Liljenström, Aaron Schurger, and Uri Maoz

End Matter

Glossary of Crucial Terms

Annotated Bibliography

Index

Brain Maps