Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.12, 2015

 

The Foundation of Free Will in the Mind

(Abstract)

 

Fei Duoyi

 

The experimental results of modern neuroscience show that the brain makes decisions on action before we are conscious of action. There can be no doubt that this challenges common knowledge and traditional philosophy: The so-called freedom is just an illusion. Faced with the fierce controversy produced by these findings, we need to analyze misunderstandings of the relevant concepts and clarify the connotations and essential provisions of free will. In fact, since no distinction has been made between experience at the individual level and neurological activity at the sub-individual level, some cognitive neuroscientists have made an inappropriate leap across conceptual levels. In recent years, experimental discoveries have revealed important features of the conscious experience contained in counterintuitive phenomena, “post hoc interpretation” and “construction-integration,” which have aroused growing interest. The ability of consciousness to rewrite the mind’s unconscious pre-set behavior is the mind’s foundation for free will. It inspires people to rethink the initiating and operating mechanisms of free will, and to comprehend the unique behavioral characteristics of the unified rational subject from a new starting point. As an intellectual force selected onthe evolutionary path, the foundation of free will in the mind is  vital for human survival and reproduction.