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Free Will, Agency, and the Cultural, Reflexive Brain

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Handbook of Neuroethics

Abstract

This chapter explores free will, agency, and the brain. It employs a critical structural realist (CSR) approach to assist investigators in the study of will and of the possibilities for freedom. The position is argued in three sections. First, there is a preliminary discussion of an influential modern concept of will that identifies one of its weaknesses. The section concludes with an introduction to CSR. The following section addresses this weakness by rethinking will in CSR terms as the operation of a cultural, reflexive human brain. The following section speculates upon the implications of such an understanding of will for freedom. At this juncture, a notion of agency is offered and its relevance to free will is discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany

    Stephen Reyna

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  1. Stephen Reyna
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Correspondence to Stephen Reyna .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Jens Clausen

  2. The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

    Neil Levy

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Reyna, S. (2015). Free Will, Agency, and the Cultural, Reflexive Brain. In: Clausen, J., Levy, N. (eds) Handbook of Neuroethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4707-4_138

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4707-4_138

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4707-4

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