Morality and Determinism
1,585 views · Published 20 June 2008 · 8:27 · Indexed 15 October 2026
Channel: Footnotes2Plato · 2008 · Science & Technology
So let's just say that telling people their behavior is completely determined by physical laws ends up increasing the probability that they behave immorally... is this enough reason to believe in free will, even if it isn't "true"? Or is this even the right way to frame the question? Can science really claim that consciousness is caused by the brain? Surely there is no empirical proof of this. There is evidence for a relatively strong correlation between brain and mind, but causation? I think not. There is as of yet no plausible (or testable) theory for how the brain could create and control consciousness. Science deals in epistemology (what can be known), not ontology (what is). What can be known is that a change in a person's mental state is related to a change in their neurological state. We cannot conclude from this relationship that the neurological state is the same as the mental state, or that the mental state is merely a causal consequence of the physical interactions involved in the brain's behavior. "One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false." "...a person's mental activities are entirely due to the behavior of nerve cells, glial cells, and the atoms, ions, and molecules that make them up and influence them." -Francis Crick I believe Crick is here mistakenly assuming something to be scientific fact which is actually nothing more than his own particular metaphysical belief, one which is in striking contrast to his own experience of being human (I can only assume, as I know saying my behavior is entirely determined conflicts with my own experience). The very fact that we can ask ourselves whether or not we believe in free will (and take the question seriously) seems already to require that we have it. The study: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2008/vohs.cfm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)
