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Since quantum mechanics (QM) was formulated, many voices have claimed this to be the basis of free will in the human beings. Basically, they argue that free will is possible because there is an ontological indeterminism in the natural laws,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2010-09-07 M. Lopez-Corredoira

Free will is fundamental to morality, intuition of self, and normal functioning of the society. However, science does not provide a clear logical foundation for this idea. This paper considers the fundamental scientific argument against…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2010-12-20 Leonid Perlovsky

Free will discourse is primarily centred around the thesis of determinism. Much of the literature takes determinism as its starting premise, assuming it true for the sake of discussion, and then proceeds to present arguments for why, if…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2026-01-15 Henry D. Potter , George F. R. Ellis , Kevin J. Mitchell

It is considered the study of determinism in the theories of physics. Based on fundamental postulates of physics, it is proved that the evolution of the universe is univocally determined, proving ultimately that free will does not exist. In…

General Physics · Physics 2014-07-08 Edgar Jose Candales Dugarte

Quantum Mechanics is generally considered to be the ultimate theory capable of explaining the emergence of randomness by virtue of the quantum measurement process. Therefore, Quantum Mechanics can be thought of as God's wonderfully…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2012-04-11 Gilles Brassard , Paul Raymond-Robichaud

According to the widely accepted opinion, classical (statistical) physics does not support objective indeterminism, since the statistical laws of classical physics allow a deterministic hidden background, while --- as Arthur Fine writes…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Laszlo E. Szabo

We present a brief non-technical introduction to the standing discussion on the relation between Quantum Mechanics and Determinism. Quantum Mechanics inherent randomness in the measurement process is sometimes presented as a door to explain…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2013-07-03 José I. Latorre

Free will is an old philosophical enigma that has been recently revived by neuropsychology. We restrict ourselves to the problem that determinism seems to allow only an illusion of freedom but random decissions do not contain any freedom…

Classical Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Petr Hajicek

Historically, appearance of the quantum theory led to a prevailing view that Nature is indeterministic. The arguments for the indeterminism and proposals for indeterministic and deterministic approaches are reviewed. These include collapse…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-07-08 Lev Vaidman

Both deterministic and indeterministic physical laws are incompatible with control by genuine (non-illusory) free will. We propose that an indeterministic dynamics can be $weakly$ compatible with free will (FW), whereby the latter acts by…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2010-11-23 Chetan S. Mandayam Nayakar , R. Srikanth

However, the observations encompassed by classical physics excludes the observer from the physical reality, yet the deep-down understandung of nature --{\it the quantum theory}-- can not avoid the intrusion of observer into the measurement…

General Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Bhag C. Chauhan

This paper argues for the following three theses: (1) There is a clear reason to prefer physical theories with deterministic dynamical equations: such theories are maximally rich in information and usually also maximally simple. (2) There…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2018-12-11 Michael Esfeld

The basic problem posed by free will (FW) for physics appears to be not the \textit{physical} one of whether it is compatible with the laws of physics, but the \textit{logical} one of how to consistently define it, since it incorporates the…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2012-10-24 Chetan S. Mandayam Nayakar , R. Srikanth

Capacity of conscious agents to perform genuine choices among future alternatives is a prerequisite for moral responsibility. Determinism that pervades classical physics, however, forbids free will, undermines the foundations of ethics, and…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2021-07-15 Danko D. Georgiev

There are several important philosophical problems to which quantum mechanics is often said to have made significant contributions: - Determinism: quantum theory has been taken to refute determinism; -Free Will: in turn, this is thought to…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-10-29 Valia Allori

The issue of whether we make decisions freely has vexed philosophers for millennia, Resolving this is vital for solving a diverse range of problems, from the physiology of how the brain makes decisions (and how we assign moral…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-06-30 Tim Palmer

A tradition handed down among physicists maintains that classical physics is a perfectly deterministic theory capable of predicting the future with absolute certainty, independently of any interpretations. It also tells that it was quantum…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2023-03-09 Flavio Del Santo

It is a widespread belief that results like G\"odel's incompleteness theorems or the intrinsic randomness of quantum mechanics represent fundamental limitations to humanity's strive for scientific knowledge. As the argument goes, there are…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2021-08-30 Markus P. Mueller

Physics has long lived with a schizophrenia that desires determinism for measured systems while demanding that experimenters decide what to measure on a whim. Intriguingly, such a free will assumption for experimenters has thwarted many…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2012-11-09 Joseph J. Bisognano

Classical physics is generally regarded as deterministic, as opposed to quantum mechanics that is considered the first theory to have introduced genuine indeterminism into physics. We challenge this view by arguing that the alleged…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-12-11 Flavio Del Santo , Nicolas Gisin
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