Free will and determinism:

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  • free will (rather than determinism) is its practical value
  • Common view is we exercise free choice in everyday lives daily
  • BUT if this is not true thinking we do exercise free choice can improve our mental health
  • Roberts et al looked at adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism that their lives were dictated by events outside of their control
  • Found they were significantly at greater risk of developing depression
  • Seems people who exhibit an external not internal locus of control are less likely to be optimistic.
• LIMITATION

  • Free will is that brain scan evidence does not support it but does support determinism.
  • Libet et al instructed pp to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured activity in their brain ('readiness potential')
  • pp had to say when they felt the conscious will to move.
  • Libet found that the unconscious brain activity leading up to the decision to move came around half a second before the pp consciously felt they had decided to move

  Can interpret as even our basic experiences of free will are determined by our brain before we are aware of them
• COUNTERPOINT:

  • However, Libet's findings showing that the brain is involved in decision-making is not surprising and is, in fact, just as we would expect.
  • Just because the action comes before the conscious awareness of the decision to act, doesn't mean that there was no decision to act - just that the decision to act took time to reach consciousness.

  Our conscious awareness of the decision is simply a 'read-out' of our unconscious decision-making.

  This suggests this evidence is not appropriate as a challenge to free will.