In search of free will and moral responsibility

[Skybird]

http://reason.com/archives/2011/11/1...-moral-respons

A bit too heavy a literature as if I would consume it all in English, but once there is a German version - maybe.

It is good to see somebody who is sensitive to the complex and tricky inherent consequences and imlications of neuroscientific research and results - because it is so very tempting to abuse them for ideolgic reasons, and it is so very easy to be misled and following wrong conclusions. The "obvious" in neuroscientific research must be taken with utmost caution - especially by those trying to abuse it for political, legal or religious purposes.

[CCIP]

It's fascinating, but I don't think other than confirming suspicions, we have much to fear from neuroscience. Neuroscience has never been core to our society, and I don't think we're at risk of becoming a technocratic society just yet - there are very few examples of social institutions based on pure science, and ironically the very findings here suggest that it's unlikely. Otherwise, this is what social science, psychology and philosophy has been telling us for years. The notion of free will is a problematic one. Society and individual free will alike alike, along with morals, responsibilities and relationships, are psychosocial constructs. That doesn't mean they're not inevitable in the context that we live, but they're far from 'natural' and 'original', rather something we've gained from having to live with each other. It's good to know how not to take them for granted. It's great to know how we can deconstruct them to make things better. But it's stupid to lose sleep at night over the idea that the unwashed masses might one day find out that they really don't have free will and they really don't need to be accountable and that they might as well start "free riding". That's classic post-modernist conservative thinking that produces detached, elitist, jaded misanthropes.

[August]

I'm just glad i'm too old to see where this will lead. CCIP might have a point that this isn't central to our society,...yet. But neither were smart phones and twitter/facecrack etc until recently.

The only constant is change and the pace of change continues to increase. If there is a way to control peoples will then somebody, somewhere will try to exploit it.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by August

The only constant is change and the pace of change continues to increase. If there is a way to control peoples will then somebody, somewhere will try to exploit it.

Of course, and by the same token it IS something that should concern people - (neuro)science-worship can be just as much of a religion as anything else, and science is just as much a social construct as anything else. That is to say that it's not free from ideology. Examples of it aren't common or widespread, but you can find them in anything from today's culture of big pharma and overmedication, to creepy things like eugenics and scientific racism which do rear their heads every once a while. I really don't think it's where it's heading though. So, concern but not panic. I think there's far more danger that findings like this will turn intellectuals into detached misanthropes than the rest of society into raging anarchists. The fact is that most of our society has a poor and complicated relationship with science as it is, and nothing that neuroscientists (or most other kinds of scientists, really) will find would suddenly overturn our society. Like I said, social scientists, psychologists and philosophers have been saying a lot of the same for years - I don't see how the far more obtuse neuroscience, most of which takes a biology degree to even understand, would suddenly revolutionize/destroy morals of the whole population.

[August]

Originally Posted by CCIP

I don't see how the far more obtuse neuroscience, most of which takes a biology degree to even understand, would suddenly revolutionize/destroy morals of the whole population.

No not the neuroscientists themselves but rather those who would fund and promote their research for nefarious purposes. After all anything that has such population controlling potential would be very attractive to the would be despots and tyrants of the world.

Freedom, the right to say and think for one's self, without control or hinderance, an impossible condition.

I'm no longer sure that free will possible in this world. Leaders cheat and lie, how can you defend yourself against this. A thief will steal all you have, a liar will watch you hang.