Perspectives on the experience of will
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: In the last decades, psychologists and neuroscientists brought the concept of human will out of the philosophical debate. Here we critically examine the different attempts within the field of cognitive neuroscience to study neural processes underpinning human will. Volition has been investigated under different perspectives: while some threads of research focused on the subjective experience of free will (i.e., will under a self perspective), others explored how the brain is able to identify free will in other individuals (i.e., will under a other perspective). In addition, we comment that perceiving free will in others is tightly connected to the ethical and juridical concept of personal responsibility. Finally, we present a promising theoretical framework that stresses the pragmatic value of believing in free will. Rather than focusing on the subjective experience of volition itself, this approach studies whether believing in free will or not has an impact on brain processes underlying willed behaviour.
Authors: Davide Rigoni, Luca Sammicheli, Marcel Braß
Language: English
Topic: Free Will and Agency
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2337003738