The Brain Science Podcast had an interesting episode devoted to the subject of free will and I think it helped clarify for me some of the concepts. The variant of free will in question is a traditional and spiritually informed one, whereby our actions originate in some unassailable kernel of the self. Some people consider the workings of the frontal lobes to be free will, but that is a weaker notion.
The podcast helped me to conceptualize the issue in terms of causation. I’ll outline two different stances, one spiritual and the other materialistic. I won’t pretend to get either right. It’s interesting to note up front that historically there have been theological stances which do not believe in free will, Calvinism being one example. I think the issue partly being the difficulty in reconciling individual free will with the idea of God’s omnipotence. continue reading