Q&A: Free Will
Free Will
Question
What does the Rabbi say about the following: In an experiment conducted by a man named Benjamin Libet, he asked one of his patients to move his hand whenever he felt like it. Libet discovered that the desire to move the hand appeared in the patient’s brain long before the patient himself was aware of that desire. In other words, some of our actions may be impulsive, without us actually choosing to perform them at all. In retrospect it seems to us like free will, but it may be that we are merely justifying the action only after it happened and mistakenly thinking that it was our will. This happens so quickly that we are not aware of the process at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=115&v=OjCt-L0Ph5o&feature=emb_title
Answer
I was almost sure this was a troll, but in the end I assume it’s a questioner who simply isn’t familiar with the topic. I wrote an entire chapter about this in my book The Science of Freedom, and I also addressed it in an article on freedom of the will:
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
You probably mean Liad Mudrik. I posted her lecture here in the past. I didn’t forget, and the matter is still in dispute.
The Rabbi forgot that they also discovered that this isn’t really true.
Somebody here posted a link from the Ratio site, I think, with a link to a YouTube lecture by some professor on the subject.