IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zna/indecs/v13y2015i3p354-366.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Concept of Free Will as an Infinite Metatheoretic Recursion

Author

Listed:
  • Hashim Hanaan

    (Sibylgaze, Industry Intelligence GmBH, Bangalore, India)

  • Srikanth Radhakrishna

    (Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research, Sadashivnagar, Bangalore, India)

Abstract

It is argued that the concept of free will, like the concept of truth in formal languages, requires a separation between an object level and a meta-level for being consistently defined. The Jamesian two stage model, which deconstructs free will into the causally open "free" stage with its closure in the "will" stage, is implicitly a move in this direction. However, to avoid the dilemma of determinism, free will additionally requires an infinite regress of causal meta-stages, making free choice a hypertask. We use this model to define free will of the rationalist-compatibilist type. This is shown to provide a natural three-way distinction between quantum indeterminism, freedom and free will, applicable respectively to artificial intelligence (AI), animal agents and human agents. We propose that the causal hierarchy in our model corresponds to a hierarchy of Turing uncomputability. Possible neurobiological and behavioral tests to demonstrate free will experimentally are suggested. Ramifications of the model for physics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, neuropathological medicine and moral philosophy are briefly outlined.

Suggested Citation

  • Hashim Hanaan & Srikanth Radhakrishna, 2015. "The Concept of Free Will as an Infinite Metatheoretic Recursion," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 13(3), pages 354-366.
    • Handle: RePEc:zna:indecs:v:13:y:2015:i:3:p:354-366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://indecs.eu/2015/indecs2015-pp354-366.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Heisenberg, 2009. "Is free will an illusion?," Nature, Nature, vol. 459(7244), pages 164-165, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kin Fai Ellick Wong & Cecilia Cheng, 2013. "Predictable or Not? Individuals’ Risk Decisions Do Not Necessarily Predict Their Next Ones," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-5, February.
    2. Paola Manzini & Marco Mariotti, 2014. "Stochastic Choice and Consideration Sets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(3), pages 1153-1176, May.
    3. Paola Manzini & Marco Mariotti, 2014. "Stochastic Choice and Consideration Sets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(3), pages 1153-1176, May.
    4. repec:zna:indecs:v:13:y:2015:i:2:p:354-366 is not listed on IDEAS

    More about this item

    Keywords

    free will; uncomputability; infinite recursion; Jamesian two-stage model; quantum indeterminism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zna:indecs:v:13:y:2015:i:3:p:354-366. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Josip Stepanic (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.