Q&A: Emotions in the Brain
Emotions in the Brain
Question
Hello Rabbi,
You’ve spoken a lot about how the field of neuroscience tries to show that human beings don’t really have free will. But I don’t recall your view on the argument from neuroscience that our emotions are basically nothing more than hormones in the brain. Do you think that the chemical states in the brain are what cause emotions and feelings?
If so, it seems to me that much of what we think is human and genuine in us is really just a chemical matter that can be changed with a pill or surgery, and that would make our emotions meaningless.
Answer
I discussed this at length in my book The Science of Freedom. Obviously, the body affects the mind, and vice versa. So what? When I have a wound (physical), that creates pain (a mental sensation). You don’t need neuroscience for that. Sometimes the mind uses the body to create mental states, and sometimes it really is acted upon by the body. In any case, emotions are not related in any way to will, and certainly not to free will.