Self and Free Will 245“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity12 o’clock. But knowing that my friend makes this prediction, and trying
to defy it, I respond to the prediction by not going to lunch that day.
Knowing that I will defy him, on another day my friend announces his
prediction that I will go to lunch, but secretly predicts that I will not.
But this time I purposely go along with his public announcement and
go to lunch at noon. My friend is baffled. To an observer, my behavior is
unpredictable, yet each time I do it with full deliberation and do not let
chance “throw dice” inside my brain. One way to explain this dilemma
is to look at the brain as a convergent point of multiple causes, and to
assign a selective role to the brain, which at any given time allows a cer-
tain cause but not others to go through and exert an effect. It is like a
light filter that permits light of a certain wavelength to pass but blocks
all others. The light that passes follows natural laws, but the selective
function of the filter is what makes the difference.
Here lies the crux of the problem. If we insist that the selector is still
caused by physical events, then it is just an extension of the physical causal
chain (more of the same). Conversely, if we postulate that the selector
involves something other than ordinary matter (i.e., the mind), then the
argument takes a different turn. There are two possibilities: (1) the brain
is stochastic because the physical causes converging on the brain are com-
plex; (2) the brain is stochastic because mind intervenes with the physical
events of the brain. Note that the two possibilities are not mutually exclu-
sive. That the first is true is beyond doubt; whether the second is real is
controversial and depends on where we stand on the mind-body issue.
The answer would be simple if we assume that mind does not exist, for
in this case all that happens in the brain could ultimately be explained
in physical terms, and free will would just be an illusory (or self-
deceiving) psychological phenomenon, despite the sense of agency it
provides. In this scenario the difficulty in predicting animal behavior
could be simply compared to guessing when the next tornado would
strike.^14 If, on the other hand, we assume that mind does exist and is dis-
tinct from the physical brain, we cannot rule out its possible influence
on the physical goings-on in the brain. Please note that this statement