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Free will: A case study in reconciling phenomenological philosophy with reductionist sciences
1Department of Physiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
|August 16, 2015
Summary
This study reconciles phenomenology with physics and neuroscience, proposing quasi-determinism to explain free will. It finds microscopic reversibility incompatible with macroscopic irreversibility, supporting biological indeterminism and quantum effects in biology.
Area of Science:
- Integrates philosophy of mind, theoretical physics, and cellular/molecular neuroscience.
- Focuses on the scientific naturalization of phenomenology and subjective experience.
- Employs mathematical precision to analyze complex phenomena like free will.
Background:
- Phenomenology traditionally studies subjective experience but faces challenges with objectivity.
- Naturalizing phenomenology requires reconciling it with modern physics and neuroscience.
- The concept of free will serves as a case study for this reconciliation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the feasibility of making phenomenology scientific through a case study of free will.
- To re-evaluate concepts like determinism and microscopic reversibility in light of modern science.
- To account for key aspects of free will (alternativism, intelligibility, origination) within a scientific framework.
Main Methods:
- Re-evaluation of Laplace's determinism and the concept of microscopic reversibility.
- Mathematical proof demonstrating the incompatibility of microscopic reversibility and macroscopic irreversibility.
- Analysis of biological indeterminism, including ion channel fluctuations and quantum indeterminacy.
Main Results:
- Microscopic reversibility is irreconcilably incompatible with macroscopic irreversibility, necessitating a shift from Laplace's determinism to quasi-determinism.
- Biological systems exhibit indeterminism, supported by ion channel data and the relevance of quantum indeterminacy.
- Quasi-determinism accounts for alternativism and intelligibility of free will; origination remains an open problem, potentially involving downward causation.
Conclusions:
- A new paradigm, Boltzmann's statistical mechanics, is established, distinct from Newtonian mechanics.
- Quasi-determinism offers a framework for understanding free will, acknowledging biological indeterminism.
- While downward causation's role in free will is unclear, its potential modification of physical law dispersions warrants further investigation; visual thinking is proposed for scientific rigor.
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