Walter Sinnott-Armstrong asks if neuroscience undermines free will

For the Slate online series “Are We Free?” KIE faculty Walter-Sinnott Armstrong examines the notion that neuroscience undermines free will. He examines several theories on determinism and causality, and discusses how work in the lab can help determine the relationship between mental activity and physical movement. He also mentions the limitations to what we can accurately study:

Moving your hand in a laboratory experiment is very different from moving to a new home. Hence, it is not legitimate to infer from any of these experiments to any conclusion about choices and actions that last long with much at stake. In these more meaningful cases, our conscious wills still might come earlier than our bodily movements.