Do you think that fee will stems from the frontal lobe?

Question

Or just the "feeling" of free will? Or does free will come from the limbic system, both the limbic system and the frontal lobes, the brain in general, a certain hormone (like dopamine) or somewhere else? Or do you think it doesn't exist? Before you answer, consider the following conditions:

1. Aboulia: inability to make decisions, which can come from a variety of conditions, among them are: a hemorrhagic stroke in the orbitofrontal cortex, a lesion between the frontal lobes and the limbic system, brain injury, lack of stress hormones, and even mood disorder.

2. Total Situational Dependency Syndrome: In which patients, when presented with a tool(s), such as a pencil, a hammer and nail, a syringe, a hairbrush, a scrub-brush, et cetera, will feel compelled to use it, independent of need or desire to do so. (A condition that manifests in people with frontal lobe damage.)

3. People who feel their behaviors are out of their control (addicts to any of a number of behaviors or substances)

Answer 1

I don't believe in free will. I believe everything that happens -- "internally" as well as "externally" -- is the result of countless factors.

I think the *feeling* of free will, however, does stem from the brain. As I haven't studied it I don't know from which part(s), though.

The feeling or idea of free will is itself a factor that determines actions.

Answer 2

Your question is fallacious in one sense, and this is how:

The question presupposes that we actually have freedom-of-the-will.

For, a distinction ought to be made here (as it has been made elsewhere) between:

(1) The feeling of making decisions that are free.

(2) Making decisions that are free.

For the proposition in (1) could be true even if the propostion in (2) were false. Here's an example: right now it is clearly possible that no one has freedom-of the-will. It may be that the conjuction of the total set of the laws of nature plus the total set-history of facts prior to any event E causally-determines event E. And, if this is true, human-freedom surely cannot happen. That is not to say that the thesis of determinism, which is just the conjunction of (the complete set of the laws of nature ) and (the total set-history of facts) prior to any event E entail that event E must happen in the way that it, in fact, happens. IF something must happen given prior facts, the future state-of-affairs can hardly be said to be free at all.

Since determinism is a possibility right now - and - it is true that I feel free right now, then, it is clearly consistent for determinism to be true and yet I still feel like I make free-desicions, irrespective of my not actually making free-decisions.

______

So, do I think human-freedom stems from the frontol-lobe...Of course not. It may be that our desicision-making-center in the brain just is located in the frontal lobe, but that fact would hardly support the proposition that human beings have the capacity for free-decisions.

Again, the disorders you specify neither help nor hinder either free-will or determinisim (or, imcompatibilism of free-will and determinism, I should say). It may be that these people who suffer from such conditions have lost the 'feeling' of making free-decisions, when in fact, supposing that determinism is true, never made nor could ever make a free decision at all...

In any case, the thesis of determinism has a lot of evidence and good-argument backing it up. The thesis of free-will [also known as Libertarianism (not the political ideology, I'm afraid)], has only this going for it: We usually 'feel', or have the mental sensation, or phenomological experience, that we are making free-choices. Freedom-of the-will looks dismal...And, even if it is true, this ought not depress us, for if we are depressed from that fact, we were just determined to be that way (not Fated, fatalism is a completely separate matter altogether, and virtually bears no relation whatever to this), so, as long as we continue to feel free in our desicion making, that ought to be good enough..

Any way, take care!

Answer 3

You're assuming that free will is a biological artifact.  The question of free will must necessarily lie outside the realm of the body if it's to mean anything at all, because if we don't have free will (which I believe that we do), there must be some exertion of control over us by an external agent.

The reason why most people accept the free will argument is not because it's a "feeling" we have; it's stronger than that.  It's an intellectual tenant.  We believe it - at least I do - because no argument that carries the other side seems morally, ethically, or epistemically tenable.

I don't see how any of the neurological disorders that you've listed do anything to further your assertion.

-John