metonymy4u

The question of freedom or free will often comes up in connection with a behavioral account of mind and body. The claim is that by reducing mind to body (i.e. seeking a neurophysiological account of thoughts, feelings, needs, desires) we are denying free will, freedom of choice. In this way, the so called reductive approach is painted in the colors of fascism, absolutism, nihilism or just plain stupidity. But the so called reductive approach is actually no reduction at all. Think of it this way: I walk into a restaurant that has steak and salmon on the menu. I desire salmon. The desire is in my brain. Where else could it be? It’s not in the salmon or the menu. It’s not in the mouth that orders the salmon (the mouth is not an automaton, it’s controlled by the brain). So the brain configures a desire. One second it has no desire, the next it does. The desire is now a part of the universe. Is that reductionistic? Not so far. What else does the behaviorist say about the situation? Well, certainly I could have chosen steak. In which case the universe would have a different configuration because the brain would have a different configuration. Each one of our desires has a configuration, a state of affairs of the universe at any given moment. And each desire has a performance (i.e. an actual ordering of the steak or the salmon according to our desire) which is also a configuration. The first configuration is a desire, the second the satisfaction of the desire. A third configuration may be the conditions of satisfaction of the desire. Whatever. The point is that in between these states of affairs (the desire and the performance) is some time, during which the universe is in a configuration called “freedom.” This is the gap between the desire and the performance. It’s where choice is configured. It’s where choice or free will is part of the state of affairs of the universe. It’s a real part of the universe because the universe is real during that time (how could it be otherwise?). It’s where my ability to choose otherwise corresponds to a configuration of the universe in which I can still choose otherwise. It’s where the conditions of satisfaction satisfy the experience of freedom realized in my brain. So really, by saying that the mind is a feature of the brain, have we committed any sort of reduction at all? And hey, if you want to call the conditions of satisfaction of freedom something special like Sally, or Fred or God—be my guest!