CO SCI 136 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Indeterminism, Confirmation Bias, Determinism
Document Summary
Definition of free will: the power of acting without the constraint of fate; the ability to act at one"s own discretion. Determinism the past completely determines the future. Indeterminism the past does not completely determine the future. Determinism objection: all actions and events are pre-determined, there is no free will or moral responsibility. Randomness objection: if our actions are caused by chance, we lack control. If we class chance as being the same as free will we can"t be held accountable for our own actions. They would hook up electrode to someone"s head and a monitor of their wrist muscles, the participant is told to watch a slow clock and told to press a button at random and record the time they pressed it. Brain activity graphs show that their brain activity spiked way before they recorded their conscious decision to press the button. Implying that they didn"t consciously decide to press the button, something else did.
