Where are the sources of human volition?

Where are the sources of human volition?

Patrick Haggard, John-Dylan Haynes, Patrick Haggard, John-Dylan Haynes, Jean-Luc Petit, Włodek Duch Jean-Luc Petit, Włodek Duch

ToruńToruń, 2, 233-2-255.11.200.11.20099

Arguments have been presented. Traditional concept of free will is dead.

•Possible responses: deny or move forward?

Objections: skeptics, religious motivation …

• These are preliminary discoveries, we do not understand them fully yet, hopefully they will go away.

• Counter-arguments: based on folk psychology and introspection which is not reliable, lacking deeper analysis.

• Traditional ideas had problem with infinite regress, were never clearly formulated and had no explanatory power.

• Tradition in medicine has killed many people. • Fears: we think the way our brains allow us to; is there any

virtue in being a believer? In being moral?

Moral objections: this is a disaster …

• We cannot reject thousands of years of tradition in looking at free will as a basis of moral behavior.

• Responsibility and the whole legal system is based on the concept of free will.

• Should we accept “my brain made me do it” as an excuse? • Will it lead to a disaster? Religious systems perpetuate a

myth that we are moral only because of their rules ... • Nothing in social and religious studies supports such

reasoning. • Empathy may serve as the basis of brain-based morality.

Totalitarian seduction …

• Free will implies responsibility, and it is hard.• Should I renounce my freedom, placing all hopes in strong

leaders, political or religious, who know what to do? • Increasing submissive types of behavior: military, religious,

fundamentalist, authoritarian and totalitarian. • Love, devotion and surrender … • Cut off your hand, foot, eye, and throw it away

if it causes you to sin.• Jails or restrictive society may save us from sins

because there is no chance or temptation left.

Consequences for education …

• How much environment narrows down the choices? For children under Khmer Rouge killing was natural way of life.

• Free choice is enforced on babies, instead of telling them what to do and how to behave.

• What should be changed in education? • What reference patterns of behavior do we

have? What is their source? • Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese and

medieval European societies and communities had many references, in form of personification of virtues (arete, persona, bodhisattvas), making choices easier – what do we have?