Free Will, Where To Go - Under The Impact Of Modern Neuroscience

Free will is the oldest and most enduring difficult problem on the history of philosophy. The problems of free will and moral responsibility is throughout the entire developing history of western philosophy, and it has widely been discussed. In contemporary western philosophy, This problem also occupies a very important core status, because it has close relation with the position and state of human life in fact. Therefore, exploring it becomes a most important way of human self-knowing and self-understanding. But after some researches of modern neuroscience, the outcomes of these researches refused to admit the concept of free will unexpectedly. Free will does not exist and there is no mechanism in science. Further more, it is just an illusion of the brain. In this context, it is necessary to comb and clarify the concept of free will, and put forward a view on how to treat free will.Firstly, this paper comb the historical origin of the concept of free will in western philosophy, and how its meaning evolves. Then, it summarizes some basic conceptions which are needed to be understood and why free will is so important. Secondly, grouping a series of experimental studies of modern neuroscience from three aspects, and integrating to show how neuroscience breaks down the concept of free will. Again, summing up some typical ways to solve the problem of free will traditionally, such as the perspective of subject classification of science and metaphysics, the perspective of Aristotle’s Four aitia, and the perspective of the interpretation of the evolutionary biology. These views are representative, and to a certain extent they can provide some solutions.Finally, this paper showed the author‘s views on the problem of free will, and it is divided into four parts: the relationship between science and philosophy; demonstrating a common mistake to free will; providing a unique possible way to understand the concept of free will: understanding the relationship between brain neural activities free will through the relationship of the object of "primary qualities" and "secondary qualities" proposed by John Locke; In the end, it gives some extra understanding and digging.