W1) 1) The Mind and the Concept of Free Will Flashcards
Why are we here?
What is the simple explanation to why we are here?
Our behaviour is influenced by what we see in the world, we can’t control it.
What is our mind?
What comes first? The mind or the action?
Eg. Want a sandwich. There would already have been biological processes within the body that makes you think that.
Brain already decides = you get the output of that decision, become aware of it.
What are the alternative views?
- Could mind be outside the body?
- Arguments for simulation
Eg. A simulation?
1) We don’t have free will but we have the illusion of it, but we are a person in the world and we’re real.
2) None of this is real and everything we experience is just a game - computer avatars?
To what extent are we conscious?
Eg. Driving and not remembering how you got there.
Eg. Eat popcorn while eating a movie - only realise you’ve eaten it after.
There’s validity to people feeling like it wasn’t them that did something. Eg. A recovering Alcoholic going to a pub and drinking… Did it 75%?
What are the feelings accompanying actions?
Benjaman Libet’s study of free will - showed action centres of the brain fired before decision centres. Not free will?
The brain then rewrites the time in the brain to make us believe me decided to do it first.
Physics = looking at something changes vs not looking at it. Your brain changes parameters knowing that you are watching it = simulation.
What is the Alien hand syndrome?
Sever corpus collosum.
- Lack of inhibition - Phinias Gage.
What happens when a patient identifies with one of their hands?
Free will - if you have a normal brain, you have an internal battle without your awareness before you do anything.
What does it mean for something to be involuntary?
What are the critical distinction between feeling like you are doing things and not doing things?
Why is will a force?
Restraint = effort.
Night time = naughty.
What is causality?
How do we infer causality?
Eg. Causes of WW2 - who provoked who? different views.
What is the human causal agency?
What are the suggested explanation for somethings being weird and something being normal?
What are the real and apparent causations?
What did Spinoza say?
What did Wegner and Wheatley say?
What is Free Will?
