Sunday 21 October 2012

Libet experiments and free will

I have a question concerning how you deal with the experiments of Benjamin Libet and John-Dylan Haynes (the man who used a brain scanner to show that he could predict, with 70% accuracy, a decision to press a button on their right or left hand 7 seconds before the person made a decision themselves). I find it very difficult to find answers to these questions, so I would be extremely grateful if John could help.
Response:
a. "predicting" with 70% accuracy doesn't remotely negate freewill. I can often predict the actions of people I know with 95% accuracy but that is no reason to consider them not free.
b. There is no reason I can see why freewill should only depend on conscious decisions.

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