Are We Controlling Our Heartbeats?

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We don't control our heartbeats right there's plenty of non controlled things. Exactly. As long as there are some controlled things. Right. And controls specifically by that you know sort of first personal kind of decision level process. Okay. So I guess you know just sort of wrap it up then clearly this whole discussion has a relationship to questions of moral responsibility and blame and praise and things like that. Is it just a one to one correlation or is it more subtle than that? It's always more subtle. That's our choice. But in many cases people really don't have the right sorts of opportunities to develop the kind of autonomous self that that makes them responsible.

Physics is simple; people are complicated. But even people are ultimately physical systems, made of particles and forces that follow the rules of the Core Theory. How do we bridge the gap from one kind of description to another, explaining how someone we know and care about can also be “just” a set of quantum fields obeying impersonal laws? This is a hard question that comes up in a variety of forms — What is the “self”? Do we have free will, the ability to make choices? What are the moral and ethical ramifications of these considerations? Jenann Ismael is a philosopher at the leading edge of connecting human life to the fundamental laws of nature, for example in her recent book How Physics Makes Us Free. We talk about free will, consciousness, values, and other topics about which I’m sure everyone will simply agree.

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Jenann Ismael received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. She is currently Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. Her work includes both the foundations of physics (spacetime, quantum mechanics, symmetry) and the philosophy of mind and cognition. She has been awarded fellowships from Stanford University, the Australian Research Council, the Scots Philosophical Association, and the Center for Advanced Study in Social and Behavioral Sciences, as well as an Essay Prize from the British Society for the Philosophy of Science.