I finished reading a rather good book last week, enititled 13 Things That Don't Make Sense. It's a book describing 13 science conundrums, things that modern science hasn't figured out or can't explain. It was entertaining, and informative, without getting bogged down in too many science details that would confuse the casual reader.
I just had one problem with the book, and that is it's chapter on Free Will. The central conceit of the chapter is that ask any human, and they'll say they have free will; it's a central tenant, not only religion-wise, but society wise, of what seperates us from other creatures, what makes us sentient. However, says the chapter, science seems to have proven that free will doesn't exist.
The book goes on to give examples of how, using magnetic waves, or electric currents applied to the brain, your body could be made to move seemingly of it's own accord, even if you try and stop it from happening. This, apparently, is something akin to what happens to you if you have Parkinson's disease.
This is disturbing, undoubtedly, but the problem is, this isn't a question of free will. Free will could be defined many ways, certainly, and those definitions could clearly be split by semantics, but having a scientist perform a procedure on your brain to get you to move your arm isn't over-riding your free will, it's not making you choose to move your arm. This is akin to a bully grabbing your arm and making you slap yourself with it. Annoying, yes, but your free will allows you to make the choice not to steal a gun and shoot that bully.
The problem with free will and science is that free will is a concept more suited to philosophers, and less to people who study empiric data. It's not something that can be measured, or even really proven. It's a completely subjective motivation, because it's a term used to describe the impetus for things that take place completely inside your head.
Anyways, I just thought that was interesting. Thoughts on free will, or the lack thereof?
Oh, and next time: weird things that I'm proud of!
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I always related Free Will to our consciences... I think that's how you spell it... our Jimminey Crickets if you will. Free Will is what we have, that allows us to either sit quietly on the train and mind our own business OR punch that annoying girl screaming into her phone in the face, or something like that. To get scientific with it though, well that's something I can't really wrap my brain around, but I like having unkowns like that. If you're THAT curious though, I'm sure Renee' would be happy to splice some genese in the pursuit of an answer ;)
ReplyDeleteIgnoring the fact that I think the author of this book is completely off-base with how he's defining "free will," his argument contradicts itself. If the idea is that electricity or magnetism could override a person's control over their bodily function, it is granting that such control exists in the first place. Maybe it's not absolute, but it's still there.
ReplyDeleteThe password is "bommungl."
Yeah, the whole argument seems a little weird. That's like asking me if I can walk across a room, me responding, "Sure!", then you breaking both my legs with a bat and saying, "Nope, you're wrong."
ReplyDeleteI believe that Bommungl was the giant troll that attempts to eat Bifrost (The Rainbow Bridge) during Ragnarok, but is slain by Thor's son, Modi. I believe Modi crushes Bommungl's head with a large rock.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Free Will is the more functional assumption. If it's all predestined then we don't have to worry about figuring out if it's predestined or not. Personally, I think it's just a matter of perspective.