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Freedom of will and access to informations about one's own intentions
Havlíček, Ondřej ; Hvorecký, Juraj (advisor) ; Horáček, Jiří (referee)
This diploma thesis deals with the problem of free will and the reliability of an introspective access to action intentions. The traditional questions of free will, responsibility and determinism are currently receiving a lot of attention due to the advances in cognitive sciences. Because of various scientific findings, many authors claim that free will is just an illusion. The purpose of this study is to discuss traditional conceptualization of this topic and point out its problems. As an alternative, I am trying to suggest a compatibilistic theory of freedom and responsibility, which is internally coherent and compatible with scientific evidence. The core of my thesis is a replication and modification of a recent experimental study, investigating voluntary decision-making and an introspective access to one's own intentions. The participants of the experiment performed reflexive actions which they misjudged as intentional. The goal of the theoretical part of my thesis has been accomplished on the basis of examining a voluminous foreign literature. The method involves a philosophical analysis of concepts with an emphasis on contemporary scientific findings. In the empirical part of my work, results were obtained in a cognitive-psychological experiment involving reaction time and evoked potential data acquisition and their analysis. First, a discussion of concepts relevant to the problem of free will is undertaken. An explication of the most significant experiments that question traditional intuitions about the human mind and free will is then given. A detailed description of my experiment follows, including its results and implications. Finally, conclusions about the nature of free will and responsibility are made together with certain suggestions for both the criminal justice system and everyday situations. Although I base the theoretical part of my thesis on the results of many authors, I contribute to it to a substantial degree with my own opinions and arguments. The empirical study is the most significant contribution of mine as its realization demanded i.a. a development of a stimulus presentation software, execution of the experimental tasks with a relatively large number of subjects and a mathematical and statistical evaluation of the acquired data.
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