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FREEDOM AND NEUROBIOLOGY: A SCOTISTIC ACCOUNT
Author(s) -
Labooy Guus
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
zygon®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-9744
pISSN - 0591-2385
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2004.00628.x
Subject(s) - function (biology) , psychology , brain function , neuroscience , state (computer science) , degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) , cognitive science , cognitive psychology , computer science , physics , biology , evolutionary biology , quantum mechanics , algorithm
With the aid of some Scotistic conceptual distinctions, I develop a way of meeting the apparent deterministic sway of neurobiology. I make a careful distinction between formal and material freedom. Formal freedom, the ability to will or not to will a certain state of affairs regardless of whether it can be effectuated, remains, even if our material freedom to effectuate it is hampered by neurobiological mechanisms. These conceptual findings are linked with contemporary empirical research on obsessive‐compulsive disorder and the possibility of volitional modulation of cerebral function.