To What Extent Is Free Will Actually Free? The Answer of Neurosciences

Abstract

Even though at the beginning of the 1980s the results of the first neuroscience experiments made some researchers label free will as an "illusion", researches of recent years have unexpectedly changed this perspective. It is raised the issue of post-classical, post-dualistic views in which free will can no longer be regarded as an "all-or-nothing" phenomenon, and in which freedom itself is paradoxically redefined as an unconscious predetermination out of an infinite number of options. The present paper summarizes the perspectives on free will generated by the first experiments in neuroscience and aims to find an answer regarding the freedom of choice, taking into account the latest scientific communications on this subject.