When is there a question of free will? Chapter 9

The problem of free will goes back to the Greek philosophers, 2000 years ago. The basic question that was always asked was whether we are free to make our actions and decisions. There are two major problems here. The first problem is determinism: if this universe runs through deterministic laws, then everything that happens should be inevitable. If this were true, there could be no free will. The second problem is moral responsibility: if I am not free to choose my actions, how can I feel morally responsible for these actions?

Compatibilists believe that some things can be certain, but free will can still exist. There is a connection between the self and consciousness. We act as if there is an 'I' that makes conscious choices. It seems that our conscious thoughts are the cause of our actions. James rejected the idea of ​​a permanent self, but believed in a spiritual power. In his view, the feeling of effort is no illusion, but the cause of consciousness and of personal will. We know that thoughts and emotions play a role in decision-making. We weigh things up and compare them with each other. The question is where consciousness plays a role in this process.

The anatomy of willpower

When we perform a voluntary action, the frontal lobes are activated. The prefrontal lobes activate motor actions. These send signals again to the premotoric areas that program the actions. This is again forwarded to the primary motor cortex to achieve motor output. The supplementary motor area is involved in the ordering and programming of motor actions according to a motor plan. The anterior cingulate selects the information needed for actions, pain and emotion.

Damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can lead to a lack of spontaneous activity and to stereotypic actions. Damage to the prefrontal area and the corpus callosum can result in an 'alien hand'. Patients who have an 'alien hand' feel that their hand is performing involuntary actions. Damage to the corpus callosum can cause anarchic hand. In that case people find it difficult to let their hands do two opposite things. Stimuli that are not noticed, however, influence our motivations.

Research by Spence and Firth showed that the DLPFC is associated with the subjective experience of decision making.

The role of conscious will in voluntary action

Since 1960 it is clear that the 'readiness potential' (RP) precedes voluntary movements. The readiness potential represents a negative charge in the electrical potential that can be measured with electrodes applied to the skull before operations are performed.

Libet argued that if conscious intentions are the cause of action, then the subjective experience should take place first. This should then go together with cerebral processes. He conducted an experiment to see how voluntary movements relate to RP. He paid attention to three things:

1. the beginning of the movement,

2.  the beginning of the RP, and

3.  the moment when there is a conscious choice to move.

He could easily observe the beginning of the movement and the beginning of the RP. Interestingly, he found out that the conscious choice to move after the RP arises. These results seem to say that consciousness is too late to be the cause of the movement.

Libet argued that unconscious brain processes are the cause of a voluntary movement, but the consciousness can (just before the voluntary movement is carried out) stop it or not. This would be about 150 ms for the execution of the movement. In this way, Libet argued that consciousness nevertheless has a causal role in voluntary actions.

The debate on Libet's research resultson Libet

A lot of criticism has been made's experiment. Important criticisms were:

1. There was doubt about the way of measuring the will, the conscious intention. It is impossible to generalize the results to other actions, because the subjects in the experiment could not choose the actions, only the moment of the action.

2. There was doubt about the method of backwards referral.

3.  Moreover, some researchers suggested that awareness of one's own actions coincides with events after the intention and preparation, but before the motor command is sent.

Dennett does not reject free will, but states that free will only has to be seen as something morally important, but not as something that is superhuman and connected to the soul.

The experience of free will

Walter conducted a study with people with electrodes placed on their motor cortex. He put them in front of a screen with a slideshow and stated that people were allowed to press a button themselves when they wanted to see a new slide. The participants did not know, however, that a new slide was always on screen when there was activity in the motor cortex. The button had no effect, while people thought so. What turned out? The participants said that just when they wanted to press the button, the new slide was already on the screen. They did not understand how that was possible. This fact shows that people can manage their actions without feeling that they are doing so.

Wegner states that free will is an illusion created in three steps.

1. First, our brain plans action and executes;

2.  After that we become aware of our thoughts about the actions and this is what we ourselves call an intention;

3. finally, the action is performed after the intention.

In Wegner's opinion, we draw the wrong conclusion when we say that our intention is the cause of our action, since we call brain processes intentions. This idea resembles the idea of ​​James, since James claims that activating and inhibiting ideas compete with each other to initiate or inhibit a physical act. The activating and restraining ideas are mentioned by him as reasons or motives that are interpreted as the cause of the choice. Yet James and Wegner come to different conclusions.

Wegner states that a free choice must fulfill three criteria:

1. the thought must precede the action,

2. the thought must correspond with the action, and

3. the thought must have no other causes (except free will)     .

He conducted a research and the research results confirm what he calls 'priority principle': consequences are considered to be self-chosen when the thoughts precede the consequences.

Resources: Blackmore; Susan. (2010). Consciousness, Second Edition An Introduction. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis.