Q&A: A Question About Free Choice
A Question About Free Choice
Question
Hello Rabbi, I read about an American researcher named Benjamin Libet, who showed that free choice does not really exist.
“In this experiment, the brain is scanned, during which the subject is asked to make a certain decision and carry it out. The scan showed that the decision about the action was made after the brain had already begun to act in order to carry out the decision. That means that the feeling of deciding to act is nothing more than an illusion, since the activity that carries out the decision is already taking place in the person’s brain before the decision itself.” What do you say?
Answer
There is an entire chapter in my book The Science of Freedom devoted to Libet’s experiments.
And briefly, see the article here at the end of Chapter 3: https://mikyab.net/%d7%9b%d7%aa%d7%91%d7%99%d7%9d/%d7%9e%d7%90%d7%9e%d7%a8%d7%99%d7%9d/%d7%9e%d7%91%d7%98-%d7%a9%d7%99%d7%98%d7%aa%d7%99-%d7%a2%d7%9c-%d7%97%d7%95%d7%a4%d7%a9-%d7%94%d7%a8%d7%a6%d7%95%d7%9f
Discussion on Answer
See also here:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%97%D7%A7%D7%A8-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%93%D7%A9-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%91%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%AA
You can also find it in the Rabbi’s article series on the subject “Only a servant of God is free,” columns 126-131.