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| Claude Elwood Shannon |
Among the
arguments used by deterministic neuroscientists to prove that human freedom
does not exist, I’ll mention two:
- Brain injuries and mental
disorders
affect the mind and self-consciousness in various ways, depending on which
part of the brain is affected. In the worst case, self-consciousness can
be completely lost. Hence they deduce that self-consciousness is an
epiphenomenon that can provide some evolutionary advantages, but at bottom
is an illusion without objective reality.
- Moreover, mental states of all kinds (even mystical experiences) can be caused by applying electromagnetic stimuli to different parts of the brain. Hence they deduce that mental states depend only on the electrical state of our neurons, while mystical experiences, whatever their origin, are all hallucinatory. I have discussed this in another article.
