Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will 1st Edition by Nancey Murphy (PDF)

Description

If humans are purely physical, and if it is the brain that does the work formerly assigned to the mind or soul, then how can it fail to be the case that all of our thoughts and actions are determined by the laws of neurobiology? If this is the case, then free will, moral responsibility, and, indeed, reason itself would appear to be in jeopardy. Nancey Murphy and Warren S. Brown here defend a non-reductive version of physicalism whereby humans are (sometimes) the authors of their own thoughts and actions. Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? brings together insights from both philosophy and the cognitive neurosciences to defeat neurobiological reductionism. One resource is a “post-Cartesian” account of mind as essentially embodied and constituted by action-feedback-evaluation-action loops in the environment, and “scaffolded” by cultural resources. Another is a non-mysterious account of downward (mental) causation explained in terms of a complex, higher-order system exercising constraints on lower-level causal processes. These resources are intrinsically related: the embeddedness of brain events in action-feedback loops is the key to their mentality, and those broader systems have causal effects on the brain itself. With these resources Murphy and Brown take on two problems in philosophy of mind: a response to the charges that physicalists cannot account for the meaningfulness of language nor the causal efficacy of the mental qua mental. Solutions to these problems are a prerequisite to addressing the central problem of the book: how can biological organisms be free and morally responsible? The authors argue that the free-will problem is badly framed if it is put in terms of neurobiological determinism; the real issue is neurobiological reductionism. If it is indeed possible to make sense of the notion of downward causation, then the relevant question is whether humans exert downward causation over some of their own parts and processes. If all organisms do this to some extent, what needs to be added to this animalian flexibility to constitute free and responsible action? The keys are sophisticated language and hierarchically ordered cognitive processes allowing (mature) humans to evaluate theirown actions, motives, goals, and rational and moral principles.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “The picture of agency presented here is one well worth pursuing…. The general outlines of the view are plausible, and there is a rich research agenda here.”–Neil Levy, Metaphsychology”A nicely written, engaging book that makes a genuine contribution to the growing literature on mental causation.”–Science”Murphy and Brown’s arguments are complex, sophisticated and witty, drawing from theology, moral philosophy, neurobiology, and computational theory.”–Brain About the Author Nancey Murphy is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. Warren S. Brown is Professor of Psychology at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, California.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐As part of a solid and well thought through academic review, Murphy and Brown suggest that popularizations of recent developments in neuroscience and philosophy have begun to stimulate public discussion. However, they suggest that many popularizers are not only physicalists but also ardent reductionists. Essentially the main theme of their argument seems to be to counter the position that all physicalist accounts of the human condition need necessarily be reductive.On this basis, they move toward the development of a theory that avoids the hangovers of Cartesian materialism and causal reductionism by viewing the human condition as part of a self directed, self causing system. They achieve this by drawing on the seminal work of leading thinkers likes Juarrero, Deacon, Ellis, Sperry, Van Gulick, Dennett and Damasio (to name but a few). Of central importance to Murphy and Brown’s argument appear to be concepts like emergence, supervenience and downward causation, all of which enable the possibility of higher and lower ordering principles, interlevel causality and dynamic processes.Even if you don’t agree with the final conclusions or ultimate positions of these authors; the book is a brilliant resource for anyone wanting to understand more about current scientific and philisophical debates underpinning contemporary neuroscientific research. Highly recommended!

⭐”Did My Neurons Make Me Do It” isn’t an easy read, especially if you’re not conversant in philosophical terminology and concepts. That said, if you are interested in the question of free will in the age of neurobiology then the book is well worth the effort. Murphy and Brown make a compelling argument that, even when embracing a physicalist view of the brain, i.e., no non-material mind, a degree of downward causation by a moral actor is possible by way of higher order processes that emerge in the brain providing a framework for chemical brain events, and which engage the outer environment in action-feedback-evaluation-action loops. Highly recommended.

⭐An interesting attempt to preserve the notion of free will and so moral responsibility, as traditionally conceived, in a generally orthodox physicalist framework.However the reliance on Edelman’s ‘explanation’ of consciousness,not vital to authors’ central thesis marred the book, leaving their position vulnerable to David Chalmers’ arguements in his ‘Conscious Mind’ book.However still worth reading as defect not fatal to their central concerns

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