Essay - Free Will Patricia Smith Churchland Discusses the Issue of Free...

Free Will

Patricia Smith Churchland discusses the issue of free will in her book Brain-wise, asking first what it means to have control over our own actions and whether this can be answered by a "nueroscientific underst*****ing of the neuronal mechanisms for decision making" (Churchland 202). The issue ***** free will has *****en argued ***** centuries, with the question posed as to whether we have ***** will and make our ***** choices or whether ***** choices are determined ***** forces outside ourselves. Churchl***** holds that we do have free will, and she attempts ***** describe how this is the case even if our dec*****ions are g*****ned by electronic and mechanical processes in the human bra*****.

She relates this ***** to the specific question of ***** ***** can be responsible for the choices we make it those choices are caused, whether by an outside *****ce or by the ***** connections in our brains. As ***** notes,

One tradition bases the conditions for free will and control on a contrast *****tween being caused to do something and not ***** so caused (Churchland 203).

She cites David Hume on the issue, and he ***** "that our ***** choices and decisi*****s are in fact caused by other events in the mind: desires, beliefs, preferences, feelings, and ***** forth" (***** 203). Churchl***** considers ***** ramifications ***** ***** idea and whether the fact ***** our behavior is caused can mean that we do have a choice. Even assuming that ***** is a mech*****nical process, the number of combinations ***** permutations of neurons and synapses in the human brain is staggering, so she chooses ***** select, at least provisionally, the idea offered ***** Hume "th***** all choices and all ***** ***** *****, in one way or ano*****er" (Churchland 207).

The question ***** been analyzed since at least the time of ancient Greece. According to Aristotle, for instance, we ***** freedom of choice and are responsible for the choices we *****. We are morally culpable even for unintended consequences. Acting unjustly is tantamount to w*****hing ***** act unjustly. The origin of action, says *****, is choice, and the ***** of choice is desire and reasoning with a view to an end:

***** ***** why choice c*****not exist ei*****r without thought ***** intellect or without a moral state; for good ***** and its opposite cannot exist without a combination ***** intellect and character (Aristotle 1798).

Choice is directed at some end, and this involves determining ***** that end should be and ***** it ***** be reached. We are ***** ***** the choices we make and for th***** consequences. ***** are free to make choices ***** to take action based on ***** choices--Aristotle is not determin*****tic w*****h reference to human action but believes in free will. Practical wisdom is *****e k*****d of knowledge that leads to action, and ***** is the type of wisdom most identified with the individual. Any action may indeed be ***** consequence of a series of choices, ***** ***** if the outcome is unintended, ***** *****re