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Q&A: Dualism

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Dualism

Question

I know that at the moment there is no experiment that can confirm or refute free will, but theoretically there could be such an experiment. Science just is not developed enough yet. Does the same apply to the discussion of deterministic dualism as well?

Answer

I don’t know whether there could be an experiment regarding free will. The same goes for dualism.

Discussion on Answer

Boaz (2025-05-08)

Libet-style experiments on choosing, which would show certain predictive ability, would not prove that there is no choice?

Michi (2025-05-08)

I explained in my book that they would not. Both because you would never get a certain result in an experiment, and also because my choices now are the result of choices I made in the past. Even if they can now predict in advance what I will do in the dilemma before me, that can still be the result of a choice of some value that I made in the past. At this point I am acting “deterministically” in accordance with the value that I freely chose in the past.

Boaz (2025-05-08)

I was asking about a hypothetical situation in which they do manage to get a certain result in an experiment. In such a situation, to argue that it is true that in all the times we performed the experiment there was no choice, but in the past there was a choice that shaped the brain so that it would deterministically choose that value again, sounds to me like a strained explanation. In such a situation determinism sounds more plausible.

Michi (2025-05-08)

Not to me. But plausibility is something one can argue about.

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