Is Science Compatible with Free Will?

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Peter Adams, Antoine Suarez

   Pages 1-4

3. Quantum Physics and Free Will

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 5-5

      PDF

4. QUANTUM PHYSICS AND FREE WILL

   1. True Quantum Randomness

      • Antonio Acín

      Pages 7-22

   2. Are There Quantum Effects Coming from Outside Space–Time? Nonlocality, Free Will and “No Many-Worlds”

      • Nicolas Gisin

      Pages 23-39

   3. Can Free Will Emerge from Determinism in Quantum Theory?

      • Gilles Brassard, Paul Raymond-Robichaud

      Pages 41-61

   4. Free Will and Nonlocality at Detection as Basic Principles of Quantum Physics

      • Antoine Suarez

      Pages 63-79

   5. Are Humans the Only Free Agents in the Universe?

      • Zeeya Merali

      Pages 81-94

   6. The Origin of Freedom in Animal Behaviour

      • Martin Heisenberg

      Pages 95-103

5. Neuroscience and Free Will

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-105

      PDF

6. NEUROSCIENCE AND FREE WILL

   1. The Role of Inhibitory Control of Reflex Mechanisms in Voluntary Behavior

      • Flavio Keller, Jana M. Iverson

      Pages 107-116

   2. The Mirror Mechanism as Neurophysiological Basis for Action and Intention Understanding

      • Leonardo Fogassi, Giacomo Rizzolatti

      Pages 117-134

   3. On the Quest for Consciousness in Vegetative State Patients Through Electrical Neuroimaging

      • S. L. Gonzalez, S. Perrig, R. Grave de Peralta

      Pages 135-145

   4. On the Irreducibility of Consciousness and Its Relevance to Free Will

      • Giulio Tononi

      Pages 147-176

   5. On Habit Learning in Neuroscience and Free Will

      • Javier Bernácer, José Manuel Giménez-Amaya

      Pages 177-193

   6. Free Will and Neuroscience: Revisiting Libet’s Studies

      • Alfred R. Mele

      Pages 195-207

   7. Towards Non-physical Realism

      • Jean Staune

      Pages 209-224

   8. Are Economics Laws Compatible with Free Will?

      • Luís Cabral, Luís Cabral

      Pages 225-232

7. Attempts to Reconcile Science and Free Will

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 233-233

      PDF

8. ATTEMPTS TO RECONCILE SCIENCE AND FREE WILL

   1. The Two-Stage Model to the Problem of Free Will

      • Robert O. Doyle

      Pages 235-254

Anyone who claims the right ‘to choose how to live their life’ excludes any purely deterministic description of their brain in terms of genes, chemicals or environmental influences. For example, when an author of a text expresses his thoughts, he assumes that, in typing the text, he governs the firing of the neurons in his brain and the movement of his fingers through the exercise of his own free will: what he writes is not completely pre-determined at the beginning of the universe. Yet in the field of neuroscience today, determinism dominates. There is a conflict between the daily life conviction that a human being has free will, and deterministic neuroscience. When faced with this conflict two alternative positions are possible: Either human freedom is an illusion, or deterministic neuroscience is not the last word on the brain and will eventually be superseded by a neuroscience that admits processes not completely determined by the past. This book investigates whether it is possible to have a science in which there is room for human freedom. The book generally concludes that the world and the brain are governed to some extent by non-material agencies, and limited consciousness does not abolish free will and responsibility.   The authors present perspectives coming from different disciplines (Neuroscience, Quantumphysics and Philosophy) and range from those focusing on the scientific background, to those highlighting rather more a philosophical analysis. However, all chapters share a common characteristic: they take current scientific observations and data as a basis from which to draw philosophical implications. It is these features that make this volume unique, an exceptional interdisciplinary approach combining scientific strength and philosophical profundity. We are convinced that it will strongly stimulate the debate and contribute to new insights in the mind-brain relationship.      ​

• animal behavior and free will
• bioethics and the space-time issue
• determinism and free will
• economics and free will
• free will and motor control
• free will and neuroscience
• mind brain relationship
• neurophysiological basis of communication
• philosophy and quantum physics
• quantum randomness
• reflexes and voluntary behavior

• Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, Zürich, Switzerland

  Antoine Suarez

• Thomas More Institute, Oxford, United Kingdom

  Peter Adams

Antoine Suarez, Center for Quantum Philosophy (Geneva and Zürich) and Social Trends Institute (Barcelona and New York). Dr Suarez' research is focused on quantum experiments demonstrating agency from outside space-time, and bioethical topics. He is co-editor of Mathematical Undecidability, Quantum Nonlocality and the question of the existence of God (Kluwer, 1997) and Is this cell a human being? (Springer, 2011) Peter Adams is a founding member of the Thomas More Institute (London) which has among its aims to promote research and public debate on the interaction of Science with Culture and Politics. He has had a long-standing interest in philosophy of science, and education. He studied Theoretical Physics at Oxford, and then worked for the Science Research Council at the Rutherford Laboratory on Britain’s particle accelerator.

Policies and ethics