ACADEMIA Letters

IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION ?

Giuseppe Roncoroni

Sonata of the Stars: Andante

Ciurlionis

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Giuseppe Roncoroni, giusepperoncoroni@teletu.it

Citation: Roncoroni, G. (2021). IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION? Academia Letters, Article 1569.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1569.

1
 The neuroscientist’s voice is imperious: «your body moves according to the constants of
neurophysiology and you are mistaken in believing that your will can disturb the natural order».
Even the behavioral scientist’s voice is adamant: «do not believe that your will is foreign to the
movements of the body because, otherwise, biological evolution would not use the lures of pain
and pleasure to make your choices advantageous in preserving and perpetuating the species».
I believe both the neuroscientist and the behavioral scientist are right. The will conforms
to the natural order but at the same time is present in moving the body. The answer to
the question of the title will be as follows: will is not an illusion at all. [1]

Abbagnano
The first conception intends freedom as absolute and unconditional. [...]
The second conception does not refer to the single man but to the cosmic order.

Hegel
The planets run free in the sky like gods without any force pushing them.

THE FREE WILL SURRENDERS TO PHYSICS

The idea of free will arises from the impression that our will is endowed with “absolute and
unconditional” freedom, evoking the opening words, so as to direct the body like the helmsman
maneuvers the ship. This is also the current notion of will. Free will was in vogue in the middle
ages, with religious disputes, and continued into the modern era until it clashed with the laws of
physics in the 17th century. Today scientific investigation makes the historical datum irrefutable:
the will does not practice a deviation in physiology when I perform a gesture. Here I will pay
attention to a couple of experiments to clarify how it is impossible to intend the will as a cause.

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Giuseppe Roncoroni, giusepperoncoroni@teletu.it

Citation: Roncoroni, G. (2021). IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION? Academia Letters, Article 1569.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1569.

2
 FIRST EXPERIMENT ON THE WILL
The experiment shows that a gesture, made by me, begins before I know it myself. That gesture
is preceded by an activity of the frontal lobe, the premotor potential, which is equivalent to
the will to act and appears before this will is aware. This is a report: «Libet describes experiments
on subjects whose brain waves are controlled by the electroencephalogram. Subjects were asked
to bend a finger at a chosen time noting their decision with a watch. Volunteers took two tenths
of a second to bend their finger, after making a decision, but their brains according to the
electroencephalogram were showing activity already three tenths of a second before the mind
became aware of it.» [2]

SECOND EXPERIMENT ON THE WILL

Another experiment shows that the impression of voluntariness can be felt within a gesture that is
aroused by artificial means. This is the procedure: «Bickford implants the electrodes in the frontal
lobes and in the posterior regions. Stimulation leads to various responses. We are interested
in a type of movement that is appropriate to the circumstances and is not perceived by the subject
as a constraint: if the patient held a newspaper then he folded it, if his hands were joined he rubbed
them, and so on. When asked why he made that movement, the patient replied: I don’t know, maybe
I could have avoid it if I wanted. […] Bickford hypothesizes that the stimulation actives a system
of neurons that presides over normal voluntary movements. This result brings us back to positivist
philosophy: the will corresponds to a cerebral function, which can be localized and manipulated,
and the sensation of freedom is only an attribute of the function.» [3]

THE MODEL OF SCIENTISTS

The typical model of scientists prevailed when the utopia of free will collapsed. The possibility of
moving the hand to one side or the other, of moving the body as the helmsman maneuvers the ship,
would subvert the principle of energy conservation. The experiments just described are eloquent
in confirming that intention is extraneous to action and reinforce the conclusion of scientists:
«Neurophysiology is complete in principle and therefore the only properties of the brain that play
the role of causes of behavior are the physico-chemical properties. [...]Suffering from a burn,
savoring the sweetness of sugar and smelling cloves are processes where the experience of quality
does not affect behavior. [...] Hence, in order to maintain a thoroughness in the physical
explanations of human action, we must admit that, contrary to common belief, it is not the
annoyance of pain that causes me to avoid it nor the taste of sugar that causes me to seek it.» [4]

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Giuseppe Roncoroni, giusepperoncoroni@teletu.it

Citation: Roncoroni, G. (2021). IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION? Academia Letters, Article 1569.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1569.

3
 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WILL
A paradox presents itself to scientists. The project of biological evolution determined in me the
stimulus of thirst. Its purpose is that I feel relief from drinking and thus provide for the health
of the body. Pleasure and pain are lures for inducing individuals to conserve and re-produce.
So nature holds the will in high esteem and seduces me as if I were free to choose whether to do
or not to do something. Here: I accept the news that the body is guided by physiology but I have
to guess how the will, although physically configured, can resume its role in the action.

THE COMMUNION OF NATURE AND WILL

There is a conjecture of the common man, the common scientist, which accompanies me this far
and imprisons me in check: the idea that conscious experience is preceded and provoked by an
external world. Now I renounce this inheritance and start again from the primacy of the conscious
world. The psyche and physics are in contact, without prevailing one over the other, in the realm
of consciousness. A unique piece is at stake in the psychophysical process: the psychophysical
stimulus of thirst starts the psychophysical system of searching for water. The will is compatible
and participant. [5]

This is the key to interpreting experiments on will. The first experiment does not mean that the will
is a false impulse, at the mercy of the physical program, but that the psychic trait of the will
emerges in the unconscious. The second experiment confirms that the psychophysical act can be
physically manipulated, it is by definition, and brings with it the feeling of will that characterizes it
on the psychic slope.

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Giuseppe Roncoroni, giusepperoncoroni@teletu.it

Citation: Roncoroni, G. (2021). IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION? Academia Letters, Article 1569.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1569.

4
 MUSIC LESSON
The Muse of Music, Euterpe, repeats some notions to me. The musician extracts a series of musical
notes from the instrument. Forgetful, like all artists, he fixes the notes with dots and strokes
on a sheet. They are scribbles for those are not familiar with music but, between us, are signals
that recall a note. My music sheet remembers which notes, which melody, the organ will emit.

There are clear truths about the relationship between music and musical score. Music exists before
the score is ready. The names of andante or adagio qualify the sounds and not the signs. Signs are
converted into sounds in reference to music. The score regulates the music and the music does not
influence it. The music arises in the aura of the cathedral where the maestro scrutinizes the score
and invites the orchestral players to the symphony.

CONSIDERATION OF PYTHAGORAS
So far the psyche and physics configured themselves as fields that have a different face but
an equal trend. This is true but a last question remains open. Which is, in psycophysical unit,
the office of psyche and the office of physics?

Music offers an analogy: the mind is music and the brain is a score. This time, in the form of notes,
there are moments of meditative or emotional life. Each note is written in a network of neurons
and the sequence of their activation modulates the mind just as the spots on the paper define
the melody. Each of us thinks and wants in accordance with the score of the brain. [6]

Finally the certainties of the musician are also in the endowment of the philosopher. The notes of
life anticipate their order. Happy or sad is the mood but it is not the neurological chart. That graphic
is symbol of a harmony that comes true in the mind. Only one is the music of the instrument,
the music of man and the music of skies. Pythagoras perceives the celestial symphony, in intimacy
of the night, and gives the opportunity to terminate this “con-sidera-tion”, fatally, “in company
of the stars”. [7]

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Giuseppe Roncoroni, giusepperoncoroni@teletu.it

Citation: Roncoroni, G. (2021). IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION? Academia Letters, Article 1569.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1569.

5
 Shakespeare
The man that hath no music in himself nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds
is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Erebus.

Hazrat
I have come to the point where the Music of the Spheres resounds.
Whole life for me has become music.

Athanasius Kirker
HARMONIA NASCENTIS MUNDI

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Giuseppe Roncoroni, giusepperoncoroni@teletu.it

Citation: Roncoroni, G. (2021). IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION? Academia Letters, Article 1569.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1569.

6
 References
- Abbagnano: 1971 Dizionario di filosofia
- Hegel: 1801 De orbitis planetarum

[1] Ariadne’s thread: This essay denies the existence of a will without rule, here baptized “free will”,
and incorporates the will into the natural rule. At the same time it takes the decisive step of denying
an obsolete hypothesis, that there is a copy of the world outside of observation, as a result of which
it was believed that the will was an illusion. This step allows to reintegrate the will in the execution
of the action and to recognize a kind of freedom that is reflected in Hegel’s introductory phrase.

[2] The experiment is performed by Libet: 1973 Electrical stimulation of cortex in human subjects
and conscious memory aspects. Here it is told by Horgan: 1994 Can Science Explain Consciousness?

[3] This is a Bickford experiment: 1960 Electrographic and Behavioral Effects related to Depth
Stimulation in Human Patients. The description is from Benedetti: 1969 Neuropsicologia

[4] This conception, the epiphenomenalism, is presented here by Campbell: 1970 Body and mind.
All of a sudden, in the name of phisics, both free will and will are abolished. Free will must be
forgotten as soon as it is understood, with Schopenhauer, that «a man is free to do what he wants
but he is not free to want what he wants» (1838 Über die Freiheit des menschlichen Willens).
But are we sure that doing without the will is lawful?

[5] Here I reach the only solution that is possible: the will respects the same law but is not subjugated
to the body as the premise of epiphenomenalism implies. Spinoza, prefiguring unity and balance,
wrote: «men are sure that by sole command of mind now the body moves and now it is still [...]
mind and body are a single order [...] the will cannot be reputed a free factor but a necessary factor»
(1677 Ethica). This solution redeems the will and returns a correct definition of freedom. Men and
all of nature are free because they express their essence outside the domain of causes and forces.

[6] The notes of a music could be marked on the sheet using a multiplicity of signs and, in the same
way, the notes of life have an occasional relationship with the mass of neurons. That mass is just
a portion of meat so as the score is just a piece of dirty paper. Between the two levels there is a gap
and a symbolic correspondence.

[7] Pythagoras argued that the Sun, the Moon and the planets, with rotations and revolutions, produce
almost imperceptible sounds in which the harmony of creation is alive. It seems a metaphor that
reflects the intimacy of the cosmos and the spirit but, for those who listen to the murmur of Saturn
recorded by the probes, that intuition appears so intense as to be imprinted in the vault of heavens.

- Shakespeare: 1594 The merchant of Venice

- Hazrat: 1923 The mysticism of sound

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Giuseppe Roncoroni, giusepperoncoroni@teletu.it

Citation: Roncoroni, G. (2021). IS THE WILL AN ILLUSION? Academia Letters, Article 1569.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1569.