The Volitional Brain: Towards a Neuroscience of Free Will

by Libet, Benjamin

• ISBN13: 9780907845119
• ISBN10: 0907845118
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: INGRAM PUB SERVICES

Summary

It is widely accepted in science that the universe is a closed deterministic system in which everything can, ultimately, be explained by purely physical causation. And yet we all experience ourselves as having the freedom to choose between alternatives presented to us -- 'we' are in the driving seat.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. vi
Editors' Introduction	p. ix
Neuroscience
On Volition: a neurophysiologically oriented essay	p. 1
Towards a Functional Anatomy of Volition	p. 11
The Primate Basal Ganglia and the Voluntary Control of Behaviour	p. 31
Do We Have Free Will?	p. 47
Volition and the Readiness Potential	p. 59
Psychology and Psychiatry
A Variety of Religious Experience: William James and the non-reality of free will	p. 77
Whodunnit? Unpicking the 'seems' of free will	p. 99
A Role for Volition and Attention in the Generation of New Brain Circuitry: Towards a neurobiology of mental force	p. 115
Physics
Attention, Intention and Will in Quantum Physics	p. 143
The Physics of Interactionism	p. 165
Mind-brain Interaction and Violation of Physical Laws	p. 185
Philosophy
Hume's Mistake	p. 201
Self, Agency and Mental Causation	p. 225
A Bifold Model of Free Will	p. 241
Comment
And Now a Brief Word from Now: Logical dependencies between vernacular concepts of free will, time and consciousness	p. 261
Y's Domain	p. 269
Decisive Action: Personal responsibility all the way down	p. 275
Fear of Mechanism: A compatibilist critique of 'The Volitional Brain'	p. 279
Index	p. 294
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