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How does agent causation work?
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How does agent causation work?
There are three major accounts of human will. Hard incompatibilism, compatibilism, and libertarianism. Hard incompatibilism is the view that determinism is true, and it is not compatible with the notion of free will; so, humans cannot choose to do otherwise. Compatibilism is the notion that determinism is true, and it is compatible with the notion of free will. Libertarianism is the view that determinism is false, and human beings can choose to do otherwise. Compatibilism is so obviously false that I will not address it very much in this post. It relies on changing the meaning of the concept of “free will” into something unrecognizable, and I don’t think that surreptitiously changing the definitions of terms is a legitimate form of argument. Agent causation strikes me as the most attractive and desirable explanation for libertarian free will, especially in a theistic and Christian context, although much of it seems unexplained. It seems difficult to square what we know about the brain and the notion of an immaterial agent. For example, memories are an essential component of our identity and personhood. There is a sense in which, if a person’s memories are completely and permanently erased, the identity of that person is erased with it. Memories seem to be intimately correlated with the physical brain. People who memorize large swathes of information have increased neuronal density in the hippocampus. Medications which interfere with signaling in the hippocampus interfere with memory. Permanent physical damage to the hippocampus causes permanent loss of memory. So, if memories are stored in the physical brain, in what sense is the identity of the “agent” preserved after death? How would the agent even remember his relationship to God? One might respond that memories are stored in the agent, and not in the brain, but then how could brain damage cause a loss of memory? It seems like there ought to be some answer to this question if agent causation is true, and I’d love to hear if anyone has a plausible one.
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