250 Self and the Phenomenon of Life
b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity “9x6”simplistic and inadequate to explain the complex and subtle behaviors, such
as deciding whom to vote for during a presidential election.
11.9 Free Will was Almost Scuttled
It will be tempting to put free will into experimental test. This will not
be too hard if we can find an electrical activity in the brain that correlates
with the subjective feeling of being a free agent of an action. In 1965,
Kornhuber and Deecke reported that the performance of spontaneously
generated voluntary actions were preceded by electrical changes in the
brain, called readiness potential (RP), recorded on the scalp EEG (elec-
tro-encephalogram).^18 Subsequently, Benjamin Libet devised a method
to time the subjective sense of volition and the appearance of readi-
ness potential in reference to the time of muscle movement (recorded
by electromyogram or EMG). The subjects were told to watch a clock
and note the position of the second hand when they feel the urge to
move — in this case flicking of the wrist. Contrary to expectation, the
study showed that readiness potential preceded the action by 550 mil-
liseconds, whereas the wish to act preceded the action by only 200 mil-
liseconds. In other words, the brain signal to move took place before
the intention to move.^19 This anti-intuitive finding casts doubt on the
experience of agency, and has been interpreted by some to indicate that
the subjective feeling of will is only an illusion, not the true cause of an
action. It is as if the conscious brain is not the decider, but a reporter of
the decision that has already been made unknowingly.^20
However, Libet’s discovery has alternative explanations. First and
foremost, intention appears in different forms (plans, goals, purposes,
decisions, choices, and so on) and in different stages. For instance, a
college student opens a textbook of chemistry and turns to page 65.
What are the intentions preceding this simple act? We may find out
that he is interested in natural science, that he likes chemistry, that his
ambition is to be a chemical engineer, that he enrolls at the University
of Illinois, that he registers for a course in introductory chemistry, that
there will be a midterm examination tomorrow, that he needs a good