Since the beginning of time, philosophers, scientists and theologians have sought to find out whether human beings have free will or whether other forces are at work to control our actions, decisions and choices.</p>
<p>Now, Florida State University philosopher Alfred Mele has been awarded a $4.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to get to the bottom of this question for the ages. Mele, the William H. and Lucyle Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, will oversee a four-year project to improve understanding of free will in philosophy, religion and science.</p>
<p>“This is an extraordinarily large award in the humanities, which speaks volumes about Al Mele’s worldwide reputation as a scholar, the excitement provoked by his newest ideas, and the Templeton Foundation’s commitment to the highest standards of creativity in ideas and rigor in scholarship,” said Joseph Travis, dean of Florida State University’s College of Arts and Sciences. “An award of this magnitude and visibility puts our Department of Philosophy, and Florida State, in a very bright international spotlight.”</p>
<p>The project, “Free Will: Human and Divine Empirical and Philosophical Explorations,” is not quite as esoteric as the topic might suggest. For thousands of years the question of free will was strictly in the domain of philosophers and theologians. But in recent years, some neuroscientists have been producing data they claim shows that the genesis of action in the brain begins well before conscious awareness of any decision to perform that action arises. If true, conscious control over action a necessary condition of free will is simply impossible. Likewise, some social psychologists believe that unconscious processes, in tandem with environmental conditions, control behavior and that our conscious choices do not.</p>
<p>Mele, a prolific scholar whose most recent book, “Effective Intentions: The Power of Conscious Will” (Oxford University Press, 2009), was an effort to debunk those claims, falls clearly in the pro-free will camp. But he acknowledges that he doesn’t have the answers, and he is open to different interpretations of free will for different disciplines. His goal is that scientists, philosophers and theologians will be closer to the truth when this project is complete in 2013.</p>
<p>“What I want to do is make significant progress on discovering whether we do or don’t have free will,” Mele said. “It’s not as if in four years, we are going to know. But I want to push us along the way so that we can speed up our understanding of all of this.”</p>
<p>The ramifications could have significant societal impacts.</p>
<p>“If we eventually discover that we don’t have free will, the news will come out and we can predict that people’s behavior will get worse as a consequence,” Mele said. “We should have plans in place for how to deal with that news.”