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“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity

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Chapter 11 Self and Free Will

Give me liberty, or give me death!

— Patrick Henry, 1775

Overview: (1) Objectively, free will is the ability of an animal to make choices
or take alternative actions. Subjectively, freedom is an instinctive biological need
that imparts a sense of agency for an action and is important for the assertion
of self.
(2) Free will does make a difference to the world, to a limited extent. It does
this by changing the probability of events, making them more likely, or less
likely, to happen. Free will is biologically adaptive; it alters the environment for
the benefit of the self.
(3) The brain is the convergent point of myriad causes. Every animal action
is caused, but not every putative cause results in an immediate action. At any
moment the brain serves as a selector by responding to some, but not all, causes.
If the selector in the brain is of a physical nature, it is just part of the physical
causal chain. At issue is how much the mind, if present and distinct from the
brain, may influence the selection process.
(4) The physical world is an enormous, interlocking causal network, so much
so that deterministic events can be difficult to predict and may come as a sur-
prise. As a complex organ, the brain can generate behavior as difficult to predict
as weather. If the mind does not exist, free will could be reduced to a series of
physical changes in the brain that could be mistaken as volitional. However, if
the mind does exist, one cannot rule out the possibility that free will interacts
with the physical brain and contributes to the behavioral outcome. In the last
analysis, the free will controversy remains open until the mind-body problem is
settled.