Neurophilosophy and free will - Patricia Churchland
Summary
TLDRThe script explores the concept of free will and self-control in the context of punishment, referencing social mammals and human societies. It delves into the evolution of criminal law, the necessity for intent and knowledge in assigning responsibility, and the philosophical debate on free will's existence due to the brain's causal nature. The discussion also touches on the neurobiology of self-control, addiction, and adolescent behavior, suggesting that understanding these aspects is crucial for developing self-control and informing criminal law.
Takeaways
- 🐒 Punishment structures exist in social mammal societies, including chimpanzees and baboons, to maintain group stability by addressing violators who assault others or undermine the group.
- 📚 The development of criminal law reflects a societal effort to determine when punishment is appropriate, often based on the individual's knowledge, intent, and control over their actions.
- 🧠 Philosophical and scientific discussions on free will question whether humans are truly in control of their actions, considering the brain as a causal machine influenced by antecedent conditions.
- 🦊 Self-control is a learned behavior observed in mammals, including the ability to defer gratification, cancel actions, and suppress impulses, which is influenced by the basal ganglia and reward structures.
- 🧬 There are genetic differences that affect an individual's capacity for self-control, which can be studied through experiments, such as those involving rats and their ability to defer gratification.
- 🧠 The neurobiology of addiction is closely tied to self-control, with drugs causing specific physical changes in the reward system, leading to a cycle of addiction and anhedonia.
- 🚫 Adolescents exhibit unique risk-taking behaviors, which may be influenced by their neurobiological development and social context, requiring further research to understand the underlying mechanisms.
- 🔬 The adolescent brain's approach to self-control may differ in various domains, with potential implications for understanding risky behaviors in groups and the development of self-control in children.
- 💉 The impact of drugs on self-control can be profound, as seen in addiction studies, where stress hormones and anhedonic responses play a significant role in the cycle of substance abuse.
- 🏛 While the understanding of self-control and free will is evolving, the speaker does not foresee major changes in criminal law as a direct result of these neurobiological insights.
- 🤔 The problem of free will, especially in the context of the developing child and the criminal law, is an intriguing area of study that may offer insights into self-control and its implications for society.
Q & A
What is the central question discussed in the script regarding social mammals and humans?
-The central question discussed is when it is appropriate to punish, with a focus on understanding the structures for punishment in social mammals and the development of criminal law in human societies.
Why is the concept of free will considered important in the context of punishment?
-Free will is important because it is traditionally associated with being in control and being responsible for one's actions, which are key considerations in determining appropriate punishment.
What is the current philosophical debate regarding free will and the brain as a causal machine?
-The debate revolves around whether free will can exist if the brain is a causal machine, with decisions and choices potentially being the result of prior conditions and brain processes.
How does the script suggest that the concept of self-control is related to the issue of free will?
-The script suggests that understanding self-control, which is a capacity known to exist in mammals and is developed through causal processes, can provide insights into the nature of free will.
What role do the basal ganglia and reward structures play in the development of self-control?
-The basal ganglia and reward structures are involved in learning and reinforcing self-control behaviors, as demonstrated by the example of young foxes learning from their mothers.
What does the script suggest about the genetic differences in animals' ability to exercise self-control?
-The script suggests that there are genetic differences that can affect an animal's capacity for self-control, as indicated by research from Trevor Robbins' lab in Cambridge.
How does the script describe the experimental paradigm for studying self-control in rats?
-The script describes an experimental paradigm where rats learn to defer gratification by waiting for a larger reward after a delay, which helps measure their self-control abilities.
What is the relationship between self-control and the neurobiology of addiction?
-The neurobiology of addiction is closely related to self-control as addiction involves changes in the reward system and can undermine self-control, as seen in the anhedonic response following substance use.
Why is the adolescent brain particularly of interest in the context of self-control and risk-taking behavior?
-The adolescent brain is of interest because adolescents, especially in groups, tend to be risk-takers, which suggests that there may be unique neurobiological factors influencing self-control during this developmental stage.
What are some potential implications of understanding the neurobiology of self-control for the criminal law?
-While the script does not foresee major changes in the criminal law, understanding the neurobiology of self-control could potentially influence how certain issues are addressed in criminal courts, especially as it relates to responsibility and punishment.
How does the script suggest that the adolescent brain might differ in terms of self-control in different domains?
-The script suggests that adolescents can exhibit high levels of self-control in one domain while being less controlled in another, indicating that the neurobiology of these differences is not yet fully understood.
Outlines
🐒 Social Punishment and Free Will
The first paragraph discusses the concept of punishment within social structures, particularly among primates and humans, and the development of criminal law to determine appropriate punishment. It delves into the philosophical debate surrounding free will, questioning whether individuals are truly in control of their actions. The speaker suggests that the capacity for self-control, which is evident in mammals and is influenced by the basal ganglia, might be a factor in determining responsibility. The influence of external factors like addiction and the brain's causal nature on self-control and free will are also explored.
🧠 Self-Control and the Brain's Reward System
This paragraph focuses on the scientific understanding of self-control, particularly in mammals, and the genetic differences that affect an individual's ability to exercise it. The speaker references an experiment by Trevor Robbins that measures self-control in rats, highlighting the neural circuitry involved, including the basal ganglia and frontal brain regions. The paragraph also touches on how self-control can be compromised by factors such as motivation, hunger, exhaustion, and drugs, with a deeper look into the neurobiology of addiction and its effects on the brain's reward system.
🚫 Adolescent Risk-Taking and Self-Control
The third paragraph examines the role of self-control in adolescent behavior, noting the tendency for adolescents to engage in riskier activities, especially in groups. It discusses research by Sarah-Jane Blakemore on adolescent mice and their propensity for risk-taking and substance use. The speaker suggests that understanding the adolescent brain's self-control mechanisms is crucial for comprehending why young people might engage in dangerous behaviors, such as joining gangs or participating in violent activities.
🏛 The Implications of Self-Control in Criminal Law
In the final paragraph, the speaker contemplates the implications of the neurobiological understanding of self-control for the criminal law system. While acknowledging that the current understanding may not lead to immediate changes in the law, the paragraph suggests that biological discoveries could potentially influence how criminal courts address certain issues. The speaker emphasizes the importance of self-control for individuals to lead responsible adult lives and avoid future troubles.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Punishment
💡Violators
💡Criminal Law
💡Free Will
💡Self-Control
💡Basal Ganglia
💡Addiction
💡Adolescence
💡Neurobiology
💡Deferring Gratification
💡Anhedonia
Highlights
The importance of understanding when it is appropriate to punish in social mammals, including humans.
Existence of punishment structures in chimpanzee and baboon societies for violators who undermine group stability.
Criminal law's evolution to become more acceptable and to punish only when appropriate.
The necessity for a person to have performed an action knowingly and with control to be held responsible under criminal law.
The philosophical debate on free will and its association with being in control of one's actions.
The challenge to free will posed by the brain as a causal machine and the determinism of choices and decisions.
The differing views on whether free will can exist given the causal nature of the brain.
The speaker's perspective on free will, suggesting a focus on the degree of free will rather than its existence.
The scientific understanding of self-control in mammals and its development as a causal process.
The genetic differences between animals that can exercise self-control and those that cannot.
Trevor Robbins' lab's experiments on self-control and the ability to defer gratification in rats.
The neurobiological changes in the reward system associated with addiction to substances like cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol.
The anhedonic response following substance use and its connection to stress hormones in addiction.
The adolescent brain's propensity for risk-taking, especially in groups.
Sarah Jane Blakemore's research on adolescent mice and their increased risk-taking behavior.
The potential implications of understanding adolescent self-control for societal issues like gang involvement or violent behavior.
The speaker's view on the potential impact of neurobiological research on criminal law and self-control.
Transcripts
a question that's really important to
all social mammals and it's certainly
important to humans is when it's
appropriate to punish and we see that
there are structures for punishment of
violators in chimpanzees societies in
baboon societies by violators I mean
those who assault others or who behave
in such a way to undermine the stability
of the group and we also know of course
that in human societies this is the case
and in many instances people have
reflected on the underlying
acceptability of when to punish and in
consequence the criminal law has
developed in many many places in small
groups in large groups in whole nations
and the criminal law evolves over time
to try to become more and more
acceptable to punish only when it's
appropriate and that usually means that
the person must have actually performed
the action he must have actually known
what he was doing and known that it was
wrong and he must have been in control
and normally philosophers and others
associate this idea of being in control
and hence responsible for your action
they associate that with free will so
for example if someone is not in control
because he was pushed let us say then
the criminal law usually would would
take that into account and say well the
person didn't really do it himself he
wasn't really in control but
philosophers a kind of backed up from
that and asked the question well are we
ever really in control if as we think
that choices and decisions or the
outcome of the physical brain and how it
works that probably seems to mean that
our decisions and choices are caused by
ants
conditions of the brain and so people
have said well can you ever be
considered really in control if your
brain is a causal machine so that kind
of is the current take on the question
of free will
now some philosophers and some
scientists have taken the view that free
will cannot exist because the brain is
essentially a causal machine that in a
certain very deep sense we should not
ever hold anybody responsible or at
least we're never truly justified in
holding someone responsible even if they
were awake they knew what they were
doing and they intended to do it because
if you think about that intention the
philosophers argued the intention was
caused by antecedent events my own view
is a little different I want to say well
what fewer free will should we have I
mean what would allow for saying that
someone was responsible would it be
better if that the intention was totally
uncalled it just sort of sprang into
being
would that make the action free and most
philosophers recognize that no that
would not either in my own sort of
thinking about this issue I've been very
influenced by what we know
scientifically through experiments about
the nature of self control and we do
know that all mammals have the capacity
for varying degrees of self control so
if you're a fox and you're hunting the
rabbit you better exercise self control
you have to wait for the right moment
you have to creep up silently and we
know that the young foxes don't have
good self control because the young fox
will just boom terror after the after
the rabbit the rabbit flees he gets
nothing he learns through that
experience hit the basal ganglia the
reward structures learned not
do that and so through time the young
fox pop learns to behave like its mom
and its cautious and its careful and it
waits and it waits until the appropriate
time the forks pup also learns
self-control in other conditions and
here again it will imitate the mother it
will learn to live very very very
quietly when there is a big predator
like a bear about and again this engages
or this changes and Tunes up the basal
ganglia the reward structures in these
and this really quite ancient part of
the brain so self-control is something
that we know that all mammals have and
acquiring self-control or developing
self-control is itself a causal process
and there seem to also be genetic
differences between animals that can
exercise self-control and animals that
can't so let me give you an example and
this is from trevor robbins lab in
Cambridge so he wanted to study
self-control and he was interested in
having a good experimental paradigm for
that now we normally think as he pointed
out that self-control involves the
capacity to defer gratification like the
baby fox waiting it also involves the
capacity to cancel an action so that for
example if you're about to go into a
parking space and a child runs into that
space you will put on the brakes and
stop that's cancelling an action I can
cancel an action as I move towards my
coffee cup it also involves the
suppression of certain antisocial or or
unsocial impulses so trevor robbins in
his lab wanted to figure out a way to
measure self-controlled deferring
gratification in rats so first of all
what they did was they put a food tower
in the rats space and the rat comes into
its space he learns very quickly that if
he knows pokes
he gets a pellet which he wants because
he's hungry now after a while you put in
a second tower and in the second demo
he's interested he explores he knows
pokes he gets four pellets better and he
learns them to do that so where's the
deferring of gratification so you can
introduce a delay between when the rat
nose pokes and when the fora pellets
come can the rat wait or will it not be
able to defer gratification and go for
the single pellet and what we find is
that some rats can wait and then wait
and wait and other rats come on they
said it's like they sort of yeah you
know give up and go to the other one and
the circuitry underlying self-control
has consequently been quite well studied
in the rodent and so we know that the
circuitry involves structures in the
very front of the brain but also these
reward and reinforcement learning
structures in the basal ganglia the
precise nature of that relationship is
not understood because we know that
self-control can also be affected by
motivation if I'm very frightened I may
not defer gratification or if I'm very
tired I may behave in a slightly
different way and so forth so how the
brain negotiates self-control and
motivation and so on is not really well
understood so one way to think about the
nature of the freewill problem has to do
in fact with understanding the causality
that underlies self-control now we know
that self-control can be undermined not
just by things like extreme hunger and
extreme exhaustion it can be undermined
by drugs so a huge effort around the
world has gone in to understand
the neurobiology of addiction and the
main addictive chemicals that people
have studied involved cocaine heroin
nicotine and alcohol and what is known
now is that I mean it's going to be a
very complex story and I think only part
of the story is in place but we know
that there are very specific physical
changes in the reward system in the
basal ganglia and it sometimes looks as
though those very specific changes
actually are quite permanent but we know
for example that if someone is addicted
to nicotine that in certain very
specific kinds of experiments for
example when they evaluate what they
could have done in a task
unrelated to smoking but where they
could have done something in a task
instead of something else they're poor
at making those evaluations and so
understanding addiction is very very
closely related to understanding the
nature of self-control and here's
another important part of what has come
into focus and understanding addiction
and that is that initially someone will
get a hedonic response that is you get
high or you feel great from binge taking
the substance let's say cocaine but
always after the hedonic response
there's a bit of a dip normally but
after someone takes cocaine again and
again what we see is that hedonic
response is not very high the anhedonic
response is quite long deep and it's
protracted in time well what causes the
anhedonic response that follows and the
answer seems to be stress hormones go
way up now you know what it's like to
feel anxious to feel stressed it's
uncomfortable so what does the attic do
when they're in this anhedonic try
that goes on for a long time they take
more which gives them an even lower
hedonic response and an even longer dip
into the anatomic response and this
profile I think has helped us really
understand sort of the conscious
experience of addicts but it's also
really helped us to understand the
nature of addiction itself why there is
this anhedonic response remains a puzzle
but that does seem to be just how it is
it's how it is in rats and how it is in
monkeys and it seems to be also how it
is in humans now there are other domains
where we wonder about self control and
one of them of course has to do with
adolescence because we know that
adolescents especially in groups tend to
be big risk takers there's something
about being together in a group and
being an adolescent that motivates
risk-taking so there are scientists who
are now looking at this both
behaviorally and at a deeper level in
the nature of the brain and one of them
is Sarah Jane Blakemore in England one
of the things that she reports is that
mice they have a very very fast
development relative to humans as you
know but there are one or two days where
they are adolescents before they
actually become adults so people have
tested their risk-taking behavior during
that adolescent period so this is mice
and one of the things that they find is
that adolescent mice will run on an
elevated maze which normally adult and
baby rats do not like to do they fear
falling off but adolescent rats
especially in the company of others are
quite happy to run an elevated maze they
will take a risk it's also been found
that adolescent mice will binge drink
alcohol if given the opportunity
especially when there are other
around so I think what these results
suggest but it's only a suggestion is
that there is something about
risk-taking in the adolescent brain that
we really need to understand and I think
in the present context in the present
context of the political world that we
live in it also motivates us to want to
ask why young men in particular but not
only young men are willing to take these
really extraordinary risks to join a
motorcycle gang or to join Isis or to go
off with their mates and beat up others
other soccer fans which we know that
they do so that I think is a very
important development in neurobiological
research is understanding the respects
in which the adolescent brain with
regard to certain features of
self-control are a little different and
I should add here that of course
adolescents can be very highly
controlled in one domain and somewhat
less controlled in another domain and I
don't think we really understand the
neurobiology of those differences and
and what makes for those differences I
think the problem of free will is a very
interesting problem especially as it
arises in the context of the developing
child because we want a child to have
self-control that's adequate to his
adult life and we want people to have
self-control so that they don't get into
all kinds of trouble later in life but
we also have to understand it in the
context of the criminal law I don't
myself for see major changes in the
criminal law as a result of this but of
course these are very early days and
it's possible that there will be ways of
of addressing certain issues that come
before the criminal court through
discoveries in biology but I haven't
myself seen any
thing yet that really motivates those
those kinds of changes
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