Joseph LeDoux: Inside the Brain, Behind the Music, Part 4
How Free Is Your Will (J. LeDoux)
How free is your will
Do you have control
Are you in charge
Who’s running your soul
How free is your will
Are you automatized
Just a bundle of habits
Is your freedom disguised
How free is your will
Do you make up your mind
Do you decide
Or are your choices blind
How free is your will
Perhaps an illusion
A mystery
Convenient delusion
How free is your will
Once you decide
Are you compelled
Do you have to abide
How free is your will
Can you change your mind
Reverse direction
Leave a choice behind
How free is your will
Well of dignity
Fountain of pride
Sea of grandiosity
How free is your will
The stuff of lore
The source of evil
The reason for war
How free is your will
A truth to behold
The secret of peace
A story to be told
How free is your will
The way to stand tall
The basis of good
The hope for us all
Free will
A truth to behold
The secret of peace
A story to be told
Free will
The way to stand tall
The basis of good
The hope for us all
[1] In the process of writing this I noticed that a “?” did end up in the title of the song on the lyric sheen that comes with the CD. This was not an act of free will but simply a mistake.
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In 1920, the Nobel Prize-winning “founder of modern neuroscience” Santiago Ramón y Cajal wrote Charlas de café (Café Chats), a popular book of aphorisms and meditations inspired by his years of participation in tertulias, or Spanish salons. Contributing editor Ben Ehrlich has been working on an original translation into English, parts of which have just been published by the literary magazine 
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Diane Jacobs and Christopher H. Ramey, Noah Hutton. Noah Hutton said: Joseph LeDoux's (@theamygdaloid) new piece on free will just posted on our site: http://bit.ly/bjdgQg [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by NA Penttila, Joseph E. LeDoux. Joseph E. LeDoux said: How Free Is Your Will. read and listen at @brainshow http://ow.ly/2c7FY [...]
Thanks for keeping my brain engaged. It’s a fun way to describe the process of songwriting, breaking it down between conscious and unconscious. I bet Jimmy Page would enjoy your article.
I’m not sure whether free will can theoretically exist. But in practice it rarely exists nowadays, since society and the media are very successful in controlling our desires, “needs” and decisions.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mary Beth McEuen, Richmond Stace. Richmond Stace said: Joseph LeDoux: Inside the Brain, Behind the Music, Part 4: http://bit.ly/bmF5MF via @addthis [...]
I wonder what you would think about this issue after seeing the movie Inception. I saw it recently and it deals a lot with the (science-fiction-y) potential to implant a thought in someone’s brain in a way that makes them think they came to the conclusion on their own.
Also, nice watercolor Noah.
Oh, come on, list the chords at the end of the song. I doubt it was Mahlerian or Straussian in its complexity.
Dear Roger Strukoff,
The chords weren’t complex in any absolute sense. Just complex for me and my usual 3 or 4 chord riffs. Certainly no secret. Here is the sequence. Not sure what key the song is in at this point, so I will give a little context.
After bouncing back and forth between G and A for the ending four lines of exclamations, the chords take off in the following sequence.
C D Em Bm F#m C#m Abm A Am E
Try it. It’s fun.
There is much less here than meets the eye.
A causal loop is not “downward causation”. Free-will would violate the law of conservation mass-energy. Though mind may become conscious, and activity may occur ‘in’ consciousness. This does not mean that consciousness violates any physical laws or logical necessity. The lack of free-will is the source of understanding. Nor does the Bible ever teach us we have it. Else why does it read “Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel fitted to honor and another fitted to destruction”? And why does it say “Therefor it is not of him that runneth nor of him that willeth but of God that sheweth mercy.” Or “God caused their hearts to become calloused”. Rather, there is a lot of believing whatever one wants to be the case.
“While these issues are not so easy for materialist-inclined brain researchers either, at least we have the advantage of being able to work within one realm, the material realm, rather than having to try to forge a relation between two realms (material and mental).”
This is like opting to suffer from Simultanagnosia.
Humans came to be in accordance with causal necessity. Their sense of self is defined by their object-relations. “A self is a repertoire of behavior appropriate to a given set of contingencies.” (B.F. Skinner) Who’s nature is defined by those relations, whatever “control” the self could exert would only be in accordance with its composition. Which itself is not free from determinacy. But humans believe they are free, and remain blind to the ties that bind them. The mystical pursuit is to undo these bonds through psychological self-mastery. A cutting away of determinate processes within the mind. Though this process is always driven by an equal determinacy to free oneself. Eventually, one must choose to align themselves with something, cutting all the ties leaves one empty and void. People will generally want to align with what is true, with truth, and make it their determining attachment. But all this is easier said than done, and infinitely harder if one isn’t even aware they are not free already.
[...] Graphic Credit: thebeautifulbrain.com [...]
I don’t understand, Joe, you know the answer to the question that you pretend to ask, as you have stated so in your music without question marks, only mocking the listener.
So, why continue with research that propagates a system that allows the few to surreptitiously manage the many? Where does this authority come from?
Is lack of awareness of the deception justification?