Can physics and neuroscience allow for free will?

Abstract

While most of us feel we make decisions and can act out of free will, science seems to say we cannot. Neither deterministic laws of nature, acting in our macroscopic world, nor indeterministic quantum processes at microscopic levels, appear to allow for any free will. In addition, psychophysical experiments of voluntary actions by Libet and others seem to indicate that the brain decides our actions up to seconds before we are aware that we make a decision to act. All of these reasons have been taken as arguments for free will being an illusion. Here, I will discuss some of the perceived problems with free will, and how alternative interpretations of theories and experiments may lead to a different conclusion regarding the existence of free will. I will also argue that contemporary physics is insufficient for dealing with the behavior of complex biological systems, and in particular consciousness and agency. I conclude that, in order to allow for consciousness and free will, science needs to be extended beyond chance and necessity, which currently are the only models of explanation science can provide.

Published in

Journal of Physics: Conference Series
2025, volume: 2948
Title: PHYSICS AND REALITY: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PHILOSOPHY OF PHYSICS
Publisher: IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Conference

2024 Physics and Reality: International Conference on Philosophy of Physics, JUN 04-06, 2024, Helsinki, FINLAND

SLU Authors

• Liljenström, Hans

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Agora for Biosystems

UKÄ Subject classification

Philosophy

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2948/1/012016
• ISBN:

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/141556