Abstract
In this introduction to a thematic issue dealing with free will, some possibilities of free will in different physical, social, and technological worlds, as well as discussions of the possibilities are considered. What are the possibilities and limitations of free will in various other worlds differing from our world? What are the possibilities and limitations of free will in different species, both in our world and in other hypothetical worlds, including future species, naturally evolving, and artificially modified? What are the possibilities and limitations of free will related to the development of AI? How can the diversity of free will levels in an agent be related to possible levels (depth) of its self-knowledge? What can agents differing in levels of self-knowledge know and think about the issue of free will? How do different societies (social worlds) support and inhibit different manifestations of free will in different areas? What is the role of hard neurodeterminism and “mindless neuroscience” in general neuroscience? What are ethical aspects of the questions, including the initial one: “If a neuroscientist denies free will, how can they write a text of voluntary informed consent and propose to sign it?”.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
Notes
I am not crazy, this an implicit (of course, now explicit) reference to Peace on Earth, a brilliant novel by Lem (1994), a Polish philosopher and science fiction writer. Lem describes reasonings and struggle with “himselves” of a man getting his brain “callotomized, i.e. the two hemispheres of his brain are separated” in a distant way by advanced robots (Introductory words), see also (Kowalczyk, 2021).
References
Adomaitis, L., & Grinbaum, A. (2024). Neurotechnologies, ethics, and the limits of free will. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-024-09830-2.
Balaguer, M. (2014). Free will. MIT Press.
Ball, P. (2021). Why free will is beyond physics. Physics World January 6, 2021. https://physicsworld.com/a/why-free-will-is-beyond-physics/.
Baumeister, R. F. (2008). Free will in scientific psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(1), 14–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00057.x.
Baumeister, R. F., Crescioni, A. W., & Alquist, J. L. (2011). Free will as advanced action control for human social life and culture. Neuroethics, 4, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-010-9058-4.
Bennett, M. R., & Hacker, P. M. S. (2003). Philosophical foundations of neuroscience. Blackwell.
Berms, B. (2011). Towards a scientific concept of free will as a biological trait: Spontaneous actions and decision-making in invertebrates. Proceedings of Royal Society B, 278(930-939). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.2325.
Bolander, T. (2017). Self-reference. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition), E.N. Zalta (Ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/self-reference.
Brinkmann, S. (2011). Towards an expansive hybrid psychology: Integrating theories of the mediated mind. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 45, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-010-9146-3.
Cabell, K. R., & Valsiner, J. (2013). The catalyzing mind: Beyond models of causality. Annals of Theoretical Psychology, 11, 3–92.
Dennett, D. (1991). Consciousness explained. The Penguin.
Dennett, D. (2003). Freedom evolves. Viking/Penguin.
Fishburn, F. A., Murty, V. P., Hlutkowsky, C. O., MacGillivray, C. E., Bemis, L. M., Murphy, M. E., Huppert, T. J., & Perlman, S. B. (2018). Putting our heads together: Interpersonal neural synchronization as a biological mechanism for shared intentionality. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 13(8), 841–849. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsy060.
Gasparyan, D. (2024). How do we sign a contract if everything is predetermined: Does compatibilism help preserve agency? Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-023-09816-6.
Harré, R. (2016). Hybrid psychology as a human science. Theory & Psychology, 26(5), 632–646. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354316674374.
Hejlesen, J. T. (2024). Hermeneutic suspicion in action: Agency beyond causality. Human Arenas. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-024-00402-9.
Indius, S. (2022). How to study meta-intentionality: Looking for access to intra-psychological intention structures. Human Arenas. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-022-00306-6.
Introductory words for S. Lem’s Peace on Earth. https://english.lem.pl/works/novels/peace-on-earth/24-introduction-peace-on-earth.
Ivlieva, N. (2024). Free will: An example of the dopaminergic system. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-024-09828-w.
Kane, R. (2005). A contemporary introduction to Free Will. Oxford University Press.
Kowalczyk, J. R. (2021). Peace on Earth—Stanislaw Lem. https://culture.pl/en/work/peace-on-earth-stanislaw-lem.
Lem, S. (1994). Peace on Earth. Harcourt Brace & Company.
Mammen, J. (2018). New Logical Foundation for Psychology. With commentaries from Niels Engelsted and Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov. Springer.
Maoz, U. (2023). Freedom from free will. Science, 382, 163–163. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk1277.
Maximov, L. (2015). [The concept of free will in ethics]. Ethical Thought, 15(2), 5–19. (In Russian)https://et.iphras.ru/article/view/2649.
Meynen, G. (2010). Free will and psychiatric assessments of criminal responsibility: A parallel with informed consent. Medicine Health Care and Philosophy, 13, 313–320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-010-9250-7.
Miller, W. R., & Atencio, D. J. (2008). Free will as a proportion. In J. Baer, J.C. Kaufman, and R.F. Baumeister (Eds.), Are We Free? Psychology and Free Will (New York, ; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 May 2008). https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189636.003.0014.
Petruse, M. (2021). The informed consent: It’s validity and patient’s will. Baltic Journal of Legal and Social Sciences, 3, 77–85. http://baltijapublishing.lv/index.php/bjlss/article/view/1403.
Pleasants, N. (2019). Free will, determinism and the problem of structure and agency in the social sciences. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 49(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393118814952.
Poddiakov, A. (2019). Towards an algebra of existence and development of unique subjects with unique minds: A commentary to Jens Mammen’s book. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 53, 199–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-018-9468-0.
Poddiakov, A. (2022). [I’m a fool of my brain: the problem of popularizing neurosciences]. An open lecture. August 23, 2022. (In Russian). https://hselectorium.timepad.ru/event/2103957/.
Poddiakov, A. (2023). Creativity of creativity researchers: Invention of problems and experimental objects to study thinking. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 57(1), 43–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-022-09713-4.
Poddiakov, A. (2024). Research instruments: Objects created to study thinking as cognitive artifacts. Proceedings of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 4(1), 4–20. https://scientific-letters.ru/index.php/SLIPRAS/article/view/90/107 (In Russian).
Quinton, T. S., Trafimow, D., & Genschow, O. (2023). The role of free will beliefs in social behavior: Priority areas for future research. Consciousness and Cognition, 115, 103586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2023.103586.
Rousseau, D. M. (2016). Free will in social and psychological contracts. Society and Business Review, 11(2), 210–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBR-04-2016-0031.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2023). Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will. Penguin.
Satel, S., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2013). Brainwashed: The seductive appeal of mindless neuroscience. Basic Books.
Sinha, C. (2024). Critical psychology and the brain: Rethinking free will in the legal context. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-024-09827-x.
Steward, H. (2015). Do animals have free will? The Philosophers’ Magazine. April 29, 2015. https://www.philosophersmag.com/essays/38-do-animals-have-free-will.
Yakutenko, I. (2018). [Will and self-control. How genes and the brain prevent us from fighting temptations]. Alpina. (in Russian).
Zhang, M., Yin, Z., Zhang, X., Zhang, H., Bao, M., & Xuan, B. (2024). Neural mechanisms distinguishing two types of cooperative problem-solving approaches: An fNIRS hyperscanning study. Neuroimage, 291, 120587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120587.
Zürcher, T., Elger, B., & Trachsel, M. (2019). The notion of free will and its ethical relevance for decision-making capacity. BMC Medical Ethics, 20, 31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-019-0371-0.
Funding
No funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
AP wrote the article.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical Approval
No participants were involved in the study.
Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Poddiakov, A. Possibilities of Free Will in Different Physical, Social, and Technological Worlds: An Introduction to a Thematic Issue. Integr. psych. behav. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-024-09843-x
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-024-09843-x