The existence of Free Will proves Mind-Body Dualism

The argument

The argument begins from the physicalist claim it intends to reject: that the mind is nothing over and above the body, so that mental events are physical events and fall under the laws of physics. This principle would mean our free will is determined by physics. Our morality and ethics also, since those too are produced by a mind that would be no exception to those laws. The consequence is then drawn out. It means that our free will, desires, ethics, and personal values were created by an action and have an equal and opposite reaction, taking their place in the ordinary chain of physical cause and effect. Each deliberation would be the outcome of the physical state preceding it, and that state the outcome of the one before, back to conditions nobody chose or could have altered. Our free will would be reduceable to mechanical causation, thereby making it not free, but simply a manifestation of physics and mechanics. The word free would survive in the description while the thing it names had gone, because a choice wholly fixed by antecedent conditions is a choice in name only. The argument then treats free agency as the fixed point and reasons back from it. If we are to believe we are truly free and have full agency over our desires, then our free will cannot occupy the physical realm. Whatever does the choosing must be something the laws of physics do not determine, and so it must exist in a non-physical sphere, free from those laws. Since something non-physical would then have to exist alongside the body, the reality of free will is taken to establish that mind and body are two kinds of thing rather than one, which is the dualist position on the mind-body problem.

Context

The dualist position hinges on the idea that human beings are made up of two components; the physical and the non-physical. Our body and brain, everything we can touch, move, feel, and manipulate, lies within our physical construct. But we also have a non-physical mind. Our consciousness, emotions, desires, and experiences occupy the mind. They cannot be observed, touched, or perceived, but they still exist in the non-physical realm. While there are many different brands of dualism, the core idea of “dual” entities- a physical and a non-physical- connects them all. The roots of most modern interpretations of dualism come from René Descartes. In Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) he outlines his position of substance dualism. Descartes concludes that the mind and body come together to make up “one single thing” (1980). He went further than his predecessors and asserted that the two were conjoined, even offering the pineal gland as the location where the physical and non-physical components meet. When we move our body, according to Descartes, the pineal gland impels “the spirits towards the muscles which bring about this effect” (1952, p.299). If humans are only physical entities and do not possess a non-physical aspect, then the laws of physics must govern every aspect of our being. Laws such as Newton’s Law, whereby every action has an equal an opposite reaction, must also apply to our mental states.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Interactionism If the physical world is bound by the laws of physics, how can something non-physical interact with something physical? If two objects collide, the movement and force of one object will cause the other object to change its speed and direction. This is a physical law of causation. However, if we are to believe, as Descartes argues, that the mind influences the body and causes its movements, how would a non-physical thing interact with something physical? It is not compatible with our understanding of modern physics. Similarly, if the mind were to causally interact with the body, it would require energy to move a physical object. If this was the case, and the non-physical world was interacting with the physical one, science would dictate that the energy levels in the cosmos would be ever increasing as mental energy was constantly being converted to physical energy. But this is not the case.

Rejecting the premises

Physics dictates the non-physical world cannot impact the physical world. Therefore, our mind cannot have any influence over our body. Therefore, our physical actions cannot be dictated by the mind.