Can Thoughts Become Causes?

A major objection to free will by determinists is that they cannot grasp how thoughts can be causes … of anything. According to determinists causes are solely physical. So free will cannot exist because our thoughts cannot cause anything to happen.

It is clear by now, I hope, that one of the brain’s primary functions is to create thoughts. How it does that is unknown. But our brains create thoughts, seemingly to me anyway, willy-nilly and all of the time, even when we are asleep (we call those thoughts dreams). Sometimes those thoughts involve words but often as not images. We can see those parts of the brain used to process images and words being active in brain scans while we sleep. Obviously they are also involved when we are awake. And when asked to imagine something, real or not (my favorite is a “green hot dog”) the same brain regions are engaged as when we are processing sensory data for words and images.

Now, I wish to undermine (my brain is shouting “destroy” but that is probably just my overactive male ego barking) the concept that “thoughts cannot cause anything.” Are you ready? I only need two words: brain plasticity.

Here is an Overview of Brain Plasticity (Supplied by Google’s AI)
Brain plasticity, also known as neuroplasticity, refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt its structure and function in response to experiences, learning, and even injury. This means the brain can modify its connections, pathways, and even create new ones throughout life.

Key aspects of brain plasticity:
Lifelong Adaptation:
Brain plasticity isn’t limited to childhood; it continues throughout a person’s life, allowing for learning, adaptation, and recovery from injury.
Synaptic Changes:
Plasticity involves changes in the strength of connections between neurons (synapses), allowing the brain to re-wire itself in response to new information or experiences.
Functional and Structural Changes:
Plasticity encompasses both functional changes (how the brain operates) and structural changes (the physical connections between neurons).
Importance for Learning and Memory:
Brain plasticity is crucial for learning new things, forming memories, and adapting to new environments.
Recovery from Injury:
Plasticity plays a vital role in the brain’s ability to recover from injuries like strokes or traumatic brain injuries.

I hope you noted that our brains can rewire themselves because of physical injury, which is nice, but also for “ learning new things, forming memories.”

Gosh, that sounds like the thoughts we run around in our minds have a physical effect on how the brain re-wires itself, no? The changes thus wrought involve both functional and structural changes in our brains.

<Imagine the voice of Howard Cosell saying “Down goes strict determinism, down goes strict determinism!”>

There is so much that we do not know about how the brain functions and how thoughts are even created, so negating statements like “free will is impossible because thoughts cannot be causes” are not helpful as in this case that one seems to be dead wrong.

Problems Within the Free Will Debate

Without further ado:

Some problems within the free will debate are:

1. conflating causality with determinism
   I have written about this before. Chains of causes do not completely determine the outcome of a process. If A causes B and B causes C, then we conclude that A causes C. But A doesn’t necessarily cause the properties of C. For example, If A is a cue ball on a pool table and B is a target ball sitting right in front of a Ball C which is right in front of a pocket on the table, a sharp rap on the cue ball, directed at Ball B will cause Ball B to hit Ball C and push it into the pocket. Back up and replace Ball C with an orange. A sharp rap on the cue ball, directed at Ball B will cause Ball B to hit the orange and push it into the pocket. In neither case do the actions of the cue ball determine the properties of the “ball” that ends up in the pocket.
2. assuming free will is only conscious free will and subconscious actions are excluded
   I have also written about this before. Most of our actions are done without conscious thought, that is they are done subconsciously. But since we are not aware of these mental processes we do not associate with them, but only I can make the subconscious actions and decisions I make, so I do Identify with those actions being made by “me.” So, my concpet of free will includes both my conscious and subconscious mental processes. Most philosophers, biologists, etc. only consider conscious free will in their arguments. But if it were not for subconscious mental processes, we wouldn’t even be able to tie our shoes or drive a car without immense effort.
3. the systems providing free will may well be determined by that doesn’t mean the outputs are determined
   Our mental properties seem to stem from brains operating on the same bases as those of other animals we do not ascribe free will to. There are neurons, which are networked and the chemistries involved are the same. But there are difference between the composition and organization of the materials making up our brains and the brains of roundworms. (Roundworms have a relatively simple nervous system, with only 302 neurons in their entire body, 188 of which are in their brain. Humans have 86 billion neurons, most of which are in the brain. This makes for over 100 trillion neural connections in human brains.)

   The concept of emergent properties in any system is still being debated but here I claim that our minds and our wills are emergent properties of this 100 trillion neural connection information processing organ.

4. rationality cannot exist without free will
   The mental property of applying reason to our actions, which we call rationality, cannot exist without free will. Other animals operate on prescribed modes of action we call “instinct.” So a prey animal which senses the presence of a predator, moves away and they don’t do that because they have considered all of their options and selected the one most likely to succeed: away is away, period.
5. confusing the mechanism with the output
   One convinced determinist, Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Stanford biologist, said this: “Find me the neuron that [started the choice], the neuron that [was activated] for no reason, where no neuron spoke to it just before. Then show me that this neuron’s actions were not influenced by whether the man was tired, hungry, stressed, or in pain at the time. That nothing about this neuron’s function was altered by the sights, sounds, smells, and so on, experienced by the man in the previous minutes, nor by the levels of any hormones marinating his brain the previous hours to days, nor whether he had experienced a life-changing event in recent months or years. And show me that this neuron’s free-willed functioning wasn’t affected by the man’s genes, or by the life-long changes in regulation of those genes caused by experiences during his childhood, nor by levels of hormones he was exposed to as a fetus, when that brain was being constructed. Nor by the centuries of history and ecology that shaped the invention of the culture in which he was raised.”

   This is a bit like pointing to the threads on a bolt that hold a piston rod to a crankshaft and declaring those threads determine the output of the engine they are in. None of the parts of and automobile engine determine the car rolling down a road. There are additional considerations: the major one being organization of the parts. A campfire doesn’t cause any movement. A gasoline fire (actually an explosion) inside of a piston cylinder in an internal combustion engine can cause a piston to move, which can translate through a highly organized chain of parts into the car moving down a road. This is somewhat confusing a chain of causality for determinism.

My position is simple: somethings are quite determined and others are not. In other words the answer to the question “Are our wills free or determined?” is yes.