Abstract The existence of free will and its prerequisites have entertained countless debates. position one takes in these debates dictates their outlook on limitations predicting human psychology. Sam Harris (2012), his book, misses out exploring consequences accepting or rejecting has for the predictability decision‐making action‐taking. Likewise, referencers work addressed this topic only per...

This paper relies on experimental methods to explore the psychological underpinnings of folk intuitions about free will and responsibility. In different conditions, people give conflicting responses about agency and responsibility. In some contexts, people treat agency as indeterminist; in other contexts, they treat agency as determinist. Furthermore, in some contexts people treat responsibilit...

In this issue of Neuron, Fried et al. report electrical recordings from single neurons in several areas of the human medial frontal lobe prior to voluntary movement. These data shed important new light on the neuronal mechanisms of human volition and on the hotly debated relation between consciousness and will.

This moral presumption against infliction of suffering has particular relevance in the field of criminal law because, as a system of retribution, the criminal justice system is institutionally committed to the infliction of human suffering. Simply put, suffering is inflicted to make people “pay” for the crimes that they commit. Of course, the criminal justice system often has other goals as wel...

Human free will is a product of evolution and contributes to the success of the human animal. Useful robots will also require free will of a similar kind, and we will have to design it into them. Free will is not an all-or-nothing thing. Some agents have more free will, or free will of different kinds, than others, and we will try to analyze this phenomenon. Our objectives are primarily technol...

It is argued that free will is a highly problematic concept, even if no form of determinism is assumed. Free will is an illusion, requiring that one would suspend knowledge about oneself. This illusion is, however, essential to rational decision making and can be justified from an evolutionary viewpoint.

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...

This paper develops a sympathetic critique of recent experimental work on free will and moral responsibility. Section 1 offers a brief defense of the relevance of experimental philosophy to the free will debate. Section 2 reviews a series of articles in the experimental literature that probe intuitions about the ‘‘compatibility question’’—whether we can be free and morally responsible if determ...

This paper presents an analysis of the application of the philosophical concept of free will to intelligent machines. It is argued that we need to transfer the concept to a more empirical approach in philosophy in order to be able to answer questions about the design of intelligent systems that are required to operate in areas of society where the concept of free will is necessary. Therefore, f...