Consciousness Can Learn but Cannot Decide

Do we have “Free Will”? In this work we will conclude: “No, we donʼt”! So, if we realize that, what will then occur to our standard believes, to our daily life? Ancient Oriental philosophies suggest that: “free will” is an illusion and the mind is conditioned to satisfy a hedonistic “ego”; this should be deeply understood through “Meditation” to enjoy this kind of life as it is. A recent Western cognitive model based on “Autopoiesis” and compatible with this philosophic view can be proposed: a) neurons are committed to thinking; b) “personal identity” (including individual memories) exhibits the “will to possess”, an autopoietic function grasping any novelty in a Self-oriented perspective; c) known inputs fi nd quick responses, while new inputs cause a trial-and-error rearrangement of memory contents to elaborate a satisfying solution; d) a-priori, awareness cannot decide an action but can describe and judge its effi cacy by means of the “inner speech”, thus favouring a-posteriori the updating of the individual knowledge. This model eliminates any philosophic confl ict regarding a Cartesian dualism and embodies many features of the autopoietic systems with a “post-adaptive” role.