Brain and free will
pp. 101-121
in: Gordon G. Globus, Grover Maxwell, Irwin Savodnik (eds), Consciousness and the brain, Berlin, Springer, 1976Abstract
That we have free will is a fact of experience. Furthermore, I state emphatically that to deny free will is neither a rational nor a logical act. This denial either presupposes free will for the deliberately chosen response in making that denial, which is a contradiction, or else it is merely the automatic response of a nervous system built by genetic coding and molded by conditioning. One does not conduct a rational argument with a being who makes the claim that all its responses are reflexes, no matter how complex and subtle the conditioning. For example, one should not argue with a Skinnerian, and moreover a Skinnerian should not engage in argument. Discourse becomes degraded into an exercise that is no more than conditioning and counter-conditioning—what we may characterize as Skinnerian games!