Free Will

• Determinism


  (past predicts future)
• Indeterminism


  (past doesn't predict future)
• Free will can be defined as the ability to be free from one's past and yet to simultaneously act in accordance with one's will
• To have will is to have an historical identity and to be free is to somehow be ahistorical
• Release the philosophers
• Design features of neurocognitive free will

  • The capacity to do otherwise (Hobbes, 1839)
  • "Wanting what you want" (Frankfurt, 1971)
  • "Rational deliberation" (Locke, 1768)
  • Self-awareness — "The Real Self view" (Wolf, 1993)
  • Consciousness, effortful (executive processing)—the worry is that "the causal change leading up to our actions bypasses the self." (Knobe & Nichols, 2011)
• The capacity to do otherwise


  (Hobbes, 1839)
• Caenorhabditis elegans


  • Exploration vs. exploitation
• UNPREDICTABILITY IN ADVERSARIAL INTERACTIONS


  • Evasion
  • Combat—Escalation games
• Noise (e.g., channel noise)<|>Neuromodulators (NE, DA)<|>Sensitivity to Initial Conditions at Edge of Chaos<|>Quantum Fluctuations (?)<|>Sensitive to differences of "Arbitrarily small size"

  • Sources of tunable randomness
• In humans, some variation is under conscious/executive control
• Rational deliberation


  "One wants to be able to choose in light of the knowledge of one's options and in light of the comparative reasons for and against these options." (Wolf, 1973, Freedom within reason)
• Deliberation


  Episodic future thinking, self projection
• Individuals who suffer from hippocampal damage, like H.M. and D.B., have difficulty recalling recent events and difficulty imaging future events
• The self


  Reality monitoring, the self-actuating model (what happens when you self-project?)
• Patients with hippocampal damage also report having a degraded sense of self
• Decision Field Theory


  Outcomes are drawn from memory with evaluative (striatal) information
• Generative self-construction — whether determinism is true or not, you can create alternatives that did not exist before you searched for them and that no one could predict
• We sample from memory and construct alternative futures. This is generative self-construction
• The freedom: Sartre: "This is the limit I would today accord freedom: the small movement which makes of a totally conditioned social being someone who does not render back completely what his conditioning has given him...freedom is not a triumph...it simply marked out certain routes which were not initially given."
• Our capacity to 'mark out routes not given' is a consequence of executive function and the quality of our map
• The will: our capacity for coherent and robust self-representation
• Freedom is not a triumph, but it can lead there. Self-alignment.
• 7 Steps to understanding contemporary free will and its psychological underpinnings

  • Understand the philosophical requirements for free will
  • Understand neurocognitive capacities for tunable randomness
  • Understand how the mind samples from itself in deliberation (how randomness is used)
  • Understand that at least in humans random choice can be enhanced through conscious/effortful control
  • Understand where the 'randomness' comes from and why it matters for the four basic positions on free will
  • Understand why this creates a sense of 'you'
  • Understand Generative self-construction (all of the above)
• What is meant by determinism?

  Determinism is the assumption that everything that happens has a cause.

  Past predicts the future

  (can't escape your history/ past--> sometimes doomed= determined)

  No alternative-> everything was determined at the Big Bang
• What is meant by indeterminism?

  Past doesn't predict the future
• What do hard determinists believe?/Where do they fall in terms of free will vs no free will & and determinism vs indeterminism?


  Believe in determinism and believe in no free will

  -Past perfectly and precisely predicts the futureIt's the view that forces outside of our control (e.g., biology or past experience) shape our behaviour-> thus incompatible w/ FW (bc states no choice)

  
• what do compatibilists believe? / Where do they fall in terms of free will vs no free will & and determinism vs indeterminism?

  Believe free will and determinism can coexist

  
  

  This is contrasts hard determinism-->softdeterminism( acompatibilistform of determinism)--> FW exist despite determinism (they'recompatible)

  Possible to believe in both w/o being logically inconsistent

  Soft determinism suggests that some behaviours than others but there is an element of FW in all behaviour. (we still act as free, morally responsible agents when, in the absence of external constraints)

  
• What do hard indeterminists believe?/ Where do they fall in terms of free will vs no free will & and determinism vs indeterminism?

  Believe in indeterminism and believes in no free will

  
  

  for e.g. your past doesn't your future but you don't necessarily make choices either--> rather its randomly occurred/ generator>>>a roll of the dice

  random decisions made in the universe at a sub-atomical level that percolated up to some kind of choice but you weren't involved

  
• What do libertarians believe?/ Where do they fall in terms of free will vs no free will & and determinism vs indeterminism?

  Believe in free will where past doesn't predict future

  
  

  Karl Popper-> science has to be falsifiable--> there is an element of free will because you decide to roll the dice>>> is the option/answer acceptable/sensible?

  Incompatibilism position--> FW is logically incompatible w/ causal deterministic universe

  e.g. Immanuel Kant, Rene Descartes

  
• What is meant by Free Will?

  Ability to be free from one's past + yet to simultaneously act in accordance w/ one's will.

  Ability to play an active role and make choice for how we behave, rather than our life events being determined by our past.

  (e.g. free choice whether commit crime or not, break generational trauma cycle)
• Paradox of Free Will (3 points)

  -Free WillCanbe defined as theability to be free from one's past + yet to simultaneously act in accordance w/ one's will.

  -But to haveWillis to have anhistorical identity+ to befreeis to somehow beahistorical>>>>Ahistorical=not concerned w/ or related to history,hist dev, or tradition (bc past not predict future)

  -Release the philosophers (so they can address the paradox)
• What does it mean to have a will?


  To haveWillis to have anhistorical identity+ to befreeis to somehow beahistorical>>>>Ahistorical=not concerned w/ or related to history,hist dev, or tradition (bc past not predict future)
• What are the 5 design features of neurocognitive free will- the free will you have)?

  1. The capacity to do otherwise(Hobbes, 1839)

  2. “Wanting what you want” (Frankfurt, 1971)

  3. “Rational deliberation” (Locke, 1768)

  4. Self-awareness — “The Real Self view” (Wolf, 1993)

  5.Consciousness, effortful (executive processing)—the worry is that “the causal change leading up to our actions bypasses the self.” (Knobe & Nichols, 2011)
• Capacity to do otherwise

  Ability to make different choices in a given situation--> to do otherwise--> Hobbesian free will
• Wanting what you want


  Be consistent w/ what you want (part of you wants it but x all of you)(e.g. breaking a diet/fast for) are you sure you want it/ won't regret it

  (e.g., "do you ever just not want to snort cocaine anymore?"~ T.T. Hills)

  You have goals/ hierarchy of goals
• Rational deliberation


  Choosing based on knowledge of options and reasons

  (e.g. weighing up pros and cons)

  
  

  Your values, own knowledge
• Self-awareness


  Awareness of one's own existence and actions

  
  

  Real self- has to be some kind of self that's makes decision
• Consciousness


  Awareness of one's thoughts and surroundings

  Required consciousness/ effort (executive processing) to have FW bc we worry that "the causal change leading up to our actions bypasses the self" (Knobe & Nicholas, 2011)
• Exploration vs. Exploitation


  Balancing between discovering and utilizing resources

  1) looking for food + makes lots of high-angle turns2)30 mins later same animal--> just cruising along, in roughly a straight line--> not interested into going back to where they were before3) concentrated/ area-restricted search--> looks around it self4) 2nd time-> goes directly where it needs to (bc checking first time + know there is nothing there so no longer need to check there_

  Picture actually from a video/ GIF