The Free Will Show Episode 24: The Neural Basis of Free Will with Peter Ulric Tse
6 snips
Sep 20, 2021 AI Snips
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Cultural Scaffolding Shapes Agency
- Peter Tse recounts growing up with a German mother and Chinese father whose contrasting parenting created tensions about agency.
- He used those experiences to reflect on cultural scaffolding and how upbringing shapes perceived free will.
Readiness Potential Is A Red Herring
- Tse argues the Libet readiness potential is a red herring for free will research and mostly misleads the field.
- He says true volitional action lies in deliberation and slower, consequential decisions, not in simple motor tics.
Causation As Criteria, Not Impact
- Criterial causation treats biological systems as setting informational criteria that determine responses rather than simple particle impacts.
- Tse frames neurons as reprogramming each other's firing criteria, enabling pattern-based causation across biology.