Can we have free will, if the brain's actions are automatic? A scholar makes the case - http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article...
Apr 14, 2012
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“Probably 99.999 percent of what goes on in the brain is automatic and unconscious. I have no idea what my next sentence will be, and sometimes I sound like it. (…) We think the other stuff, the ‘me,’ the ‘self,’ — we think that’s really important. We think there is somebody in charge —somebody pulling the levers. (…)
“The brain is automatic but people are free. You are responsible. Get over it.”
Free will is not a useful concept at the level of brain biology, to summarize Gazzaniga, because the biology is fixed. We cannot control our brains. It is at the level of interactions between people where concepts like responsibility and justice can be addressed. Gazzaniga compared the problem to an analysis of traffic, which cannot be achieved by studying individual cars. “Traffic only exists in the interaction,” he said.”
- Amira
Q&A featured an outraged tirade by a speaker so apoplectic over Gazzaniga’s claims of the deterministic brain, that he could barely make himself understood. This was balanced by the question of a more modest audience member who had attended a talk given by Eric Kandel, and had also asked Kandel’s counsel about eating "brain food." "What do you advise?" he asked Gazzaniga. "Blueberries and martinis," Gazzaniga answered. "What did Kandel say?" asked Gazzaniga. The man replied, "wine every night and forget about it!" --ibid. :-)
- Adriano