The Biology of Free Will

I. Introduction The new organicism II. The organism frees itself from the 'laws' of physics III. The organism is free from mechanical determinism The polychromatic organism The organism is a free sentient being and hence able to decide its own fat IV. The organism frees itself from mechanistic control as an interconnected, intercommunicating whole Long-range energy continua in cells and tissues Organism and environment-a mutual partnership V. The organism as an autonomous coherent whole Organisms are polyphasic liquid crystals Quantum coherence in living organisms The freedom of organisms Acknowledgments Notes References Abstract: According to Bergson (1916), the traditional problem of free will is misconceived and arises from a mismatch between the quality of authentic, subjective experience and its description in language, in particular, the language of the mechanistic science of psychology. Contemporary western scientific concepts of the organism, on the other hand, are leading us beyond conventional thermodynamics as well as quantum theory and offering rigorous insights which reaffirm and extend our intuitive, poetic, and even romantic notions of spontaneity and free will. I shall describe some new views of the organism arising from new findings in biology, in order to show how, in freeing itself from the 'laws' of physics, from mechanical determinism and mechanistic control, the organism becomes a sentient , coherent being that is free, from moment to moment, to explore and create its possible futures.