Freedom to choose — a myth?

Are we just “robots,” simply carrying out commands from our unconscious mind, or are we actually capable of making a conscious choice and exercising free will?  I was watching an interesting educational film, titled, “The Final Mystery: What Is Consciousness?” and it revealed some very interesting studies and contrasting theories. I wanted to share them with you and ask for your thoughts.

In one segment, the work of Benjamin Libet suggested that “unconscious brain activity precedes conscious decisions to perform. These results, the subject of much debate, suggest that human thoughts and actions are initiated unconsciously.”  What the studies of Libet revealed was that whenever we made a conscious choice, it was preceded by a wave of unconscious signals coming from the brain that rapidly cascaded and intensified until people “consciously” performed an action.   People in Libet’s “camp” tend to believe that nothing we do is of conscious choice — everything we do is a result of unconscious processes in the mind.

This differs from the viewpoint of philosopher and professor John Searle, who suggests that “…there is no way that we can think away freedom…The refusal to exercise freedom is already an exercise of freedom.” He would suggest that free will is fundamental and inseparable from us as beings.

What do you think? Is our free will just as some suggest — a myth or illusion created by our consciousness to try to explain the unconscious stream of decisions coming from the left side of our brains, or do we actually control our own free will and conscious choices?

The question was asked in the film, “If everything really starts in the subconscious, do we have any freedom, or are we sophisticated machines, our responses determined by the mechanics of our brains?”

What do you think? Are we capable of free will or are we just sophisticated machines?

Let me know your thoughts!

-Victor

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