In part two of my discussion with Dr. Michael R. Egnor, we continue our discussion about neurophilosophy.
In this episode, Dr. Egnor brings attention to the importance of embracing the free will of humanity.
Dr. Egnor is an award-winning brain surgeon and a research professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the State University of New York.
You can find additional articles written by Dr. Egnor at discovery.org.
Key takeaways:
- Logical reasoning alongside empirical evidence of physics concludes humans have free will.
- Experiments in neuroscience also affirm the existence of a free will.
- Denying free will has societal consequences; for instance, totalitarian states are founded in the denial of free will.
References:
What to listen for:
- 1:30 Â Â Â Humans are the only thing in creation that bridges the material and immaterial.
- 3:31Â Â Â Â How do we know that we have a free will? Reasons of logic and physics point to free will.
- 7:07 Â Â Â Physicists in the 1970s asked questions about free will and tested the idea through experiments which concluded that observation itself is a form of creation in the universe.
- 11:34Â Â Neuroscience asked similar questions. Wilder Penfield and Benjamin Libet pioneered the question of free will in the department of neuroscience.
- 22:11Â Â What are the consequences of believing things like determinism or materialism?
- 32:55Â Â Individuals who even think of free will are lethal to a totalitarian state. Personal agency is the antidote to totalitarianism.
- 39:08Â Â How should we analyze the governmental response to COVID-19 through a free-will affirming lens?
- 44:36  Dr. Egnor’s final takeaway for the listeners.
- 48:40 Â Concluding comments
Quotes:
“Free will is essential to human dignity.” 21:45
“The denial of free will is the cornerstone of totalitarian systems.” 31:00
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Until next time…
Be a change maker, take responsibility, own the future.
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