Q&A: Mental Processes, Physical Quantification
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Mental Processes, Physical Quantification
Question
Is there a situation in which mental processes can be physically quantified?
If not, how is it possible to reach conclusions about a person’s mentality through physics? (Such as free will, etc.)
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. It would be good to give a concrete example.
Discussion on Answer
This is a general question, and there is neither point nor possibility in giving a general survey. If you have a specific question, raise it. Several options have been proposed for examining this empirically, and they are discussed at length in my book The Science of Freedom.
There you can also see your suggestion for interpreting the results of Libet’s experiments, which is called in the literature the “veto.”
On the question of free choice:
It’s clear that physical processes are taking place in the background (not connected to the person himself—they occur “unconsciously”), but there is a factor that it isn’t clear how one could measure: consciousness itself.
And from how it appears, it itself is problematic to understand in physical terms.
How can this question be decided when the factors aren’t clear?
Another question: in Libet’s experiments, did they succeed in isolating the “point of choice”? If they relied on some kind of “spark” that is realized just before the overt choice, how can one know that this isn’t a kind of “proposal” that the brain offers consciousness? (And then the person chooses whether to accept it or not.)
Likewise regarding other things connected to body and soul.