Illusion of choice and uncontrolled actions

Abstract

There is an opinion that modern science has established that free will is an illusion. The illusion of free will is the wrong feeling of control over one’s own actions: it seems that people can consciously choose how to act, however, all their actions are nothing more than the results of an unconscious neural activity. Followers of this theory are called willusionists. Neuroscientific experiments that examine causal relationships between conscious volitions and actions are the main evidence for willusionism. According to the willusionist interpretation of these experiments, consciousness does not initiate actions, but fixes that they have occurred, therefore, free will is illusory. Willusionist arguments aim to show why free actions are not free, but what will willusionists say about actions that are not considered as free? In this paper, the absurd consequences of consistent acceptance of willusionism are discussed. We analyze the willusionist approach not only to those actions that are considered free actions but also to actions that are wittingly unfree, for example, actions that are the results of a neurophysiological disorder. We consider an imaginary situation in which a person lacks control over one of her hands. She wants to cure this disorder and asks a famous neuroscientist who has complete knowledge of neurophysiology and the most advanced equipment at his disposal. Moreover, the neuroscientist is a willusionist. It is argued that the main obstacle to providing the patient with the treatment she asks for is the acceptance of willusionism by the neuroscientist, and not the lack of knowledge or any deficiency of the equipment.