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Sciborg_S_Patel
The Two Stage Solution to the Problem of Free Will: How Behavioral Freedom in Lower Animals Has Evolved to Become Free Will in Humans and Higher Animals
Abstract: Random noise in the neurobiology of animals allows for the generation of alternative possibilities for action. In lower animals, this shows up as behavioral freedom. Animals are not causally predetermined by prior events going back in a causal chain to the origin of the universe. In higher animals, randomness can be consciously invoked to generate surprising new behaviors. In humans, creative new ideas can be critically evaluated and deliberated. On reflection, options can be rejected and sent back for “second thoughts” before a final responsible decision and action.
We present new cosmological and microphysical reasons for doubting the deterministic picture of the world that was popular before quantum mechanics, one which still dominates philosophical discussions of free will. David Hume’s compatibilism reconciled free actions with that classical determinism. We attempt to reconcile free will with quantum indeterminism. When the indeterminism is limited to the early stage of a mental decision, the decision itself can be described as adequately determined. This is called a two-‐stage model, first “free” generation of ideas, then an adequately determined “will.”
We propose our Cogito model as the most plausible current explanation for human free will. We compare this model to past suggestions and situate it in the taxonomy of current free will positions.
A credible free will model may restore some balance to a disturbing social trend that considers
moral responsibility impossible on the basis of philosophical reasoning, psychological studies,
and advances in neuroscience