Libet Experiments – Veto
In the SD
Hello Rabbi,
The Rabbi mentioned in the previous discussion that, to his knowledge, the new Libet experiments still showed that there is no RP that occurs before the veto imposed by the experimenters.
And even more than that, you wrote that in your opinion it is not possible in principle to distinguish RP before vetoing. You only mentioned the magic word "Achm". Therefore, I thought it was important (and appropriate) to open a new question about this so that you could write your position on why RP cannot be distinguished before vetoing.
Because to some extent, if the studies fail to show absolute determinism prevailing in our brains at the neuron level (which probably won't happen and certainly not in the near future), then with these words you managed to argue that it will never be possible to establish a fully deterministic approach based on brain research!
לגלות עוד מהאתר הרב מיכאל אברהם
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- Philosophically. In my opinion, the veto is the result of a free decision (=not deterministic). Therefore, by definition, it should not be preceded by an RP that determines it.
- Scientifically. If there is an RP before it, it can be vetoed as well, and this veto will also require an RP, and so on.
- Scientifically. As far as I know, the veto is an unknown mechanism (its very existence is debated). Even those who claim that it exists say so based on the result (that there is RP and yet the person does not act accordingly). They do not point to veto neurons. In any case, it does not seem possible to locate an RP responsible for the veto, when the mechanism of the veto itself has not been located and is unknown.
- Definitionally. The veto is by definition a different kind of action than just a neural calculation. If it were part of the deterministic mechanism itself (i.e., powered by RP), then it cannot be called a veto. It was simply part of the calculation done in the brain that ultimately has an RP for the action. If we define a veto beyond RP, we mean an action that is not part of the calculation. Hence, the very definition of any action as a veto means that it is not a simple neural action. Note that this argument is not based on my philosophical view (as in section 1).
לגלות עוד מהאתר הרב מיכאל אברהם
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