The Will and its Brain: An Appraisal of Reasoned Free Will

Author:   Hans Helmut Kornhuber ,  Lüder Deecke
Publisher:   University Press of America
ISBN:  

9780761858621


Pages:   110
Publication Date:   11 September 2012
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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The Will and its Brain: An Appraisal of Reasoned Free Will


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Overview

In 1964–1965, Hans Helmut Kornhuber and Lüder Deecke achieved a scientific breakthrough with the discovery of the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), or readiness potential. In The Will and its Brain, Kornhuber and Deecke present evidence that proves we can record activity from the human brain occurring prior to our volitional movements or actions. Such preparatory activity is generated by specific brain regions, particularly by the supplementary motor area (SMA) of the frontal lobe, which lies on the inner surface of the brain between the hemispheres. The primary (precentral) motor cortex (MI) later becomes activated in preparing for action. Consequently, the authors discriminate between two components of the preparatory activity of the Bereitschaftspotential: an early SMA-generated BP1 and a late MI-derived BP2. Between BP1 and BP2, the intentional activity runs over the so-called motor loop via the basal ganglia. Kornhuber and Deecke discuss these and other brain processing systems while focusing on the concept of free will. They claim that we, indeed, have free will. It may not be absolutely free, but free in terms of degrees. We can take efforts to increase our degrees of freedom through self-improvement, but we can also lose degrees of freedom through self-mismanagement.

Full Product Details

Author:   Hans Helmut Kornhuber ,  Lüder Deecke
Publisher:   University Press of America
Imprint:   University Press of America
Dimensions:   Width: 14.90cm , Height: 1.00cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.209kg
ISBN:  

9780761858621


ISBN 10:   0761858628
Pages:   110
Publication Date:   11 September 2012
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

List of Figures Foreword Preface Preface to the German Edition Introduction — What is the Will? Chapter One: The Will — History and Transcultural Aspects Chapter Two: The Will — Its Association with Freedom Chapter Three: The Will and Psychiatry/Psychology Chapter Four: The Will and Neurophysiology/Brain Research Chapter Five: The Will and New Psychology Schools Chapter Six: The Will and the Real Function of the Frontal Lobe — Commander, Delegator, Supervisor and Rater Chapter Seven: The Will and the Evolution of Man — Creativeness and Cooperation — Common Will Chapter Eight: The Will and Dream Sleep, Feelings, Drives, Meaning-Happiness, Beauty, Love, Empathy and Theory of Mind Chapter Nine: The Will and the Limbic System, the Hypothalamus, the Arousal System, Circadian Rhythm, the Endocrine System, Fatigue and Impetus Chapter Ten: The Will is Not Strictly Coupled with Consciousness — There are Conscious and Unconscious Agendas in the Brain and Both are Important Chapter Eleven: The Will — Is it Grounded upon Freedom or upon Total Determinism? Chapter Twelve: The Will — Its Freedom is Not a Priori Granted: We Have to do Something for It — Actively Increasing our Degrees of Freedom Summary Bibliography Index Name Index

Reviews

. . . required reading for anybody interested in what neuroscience has to say about our capacity to make responsible decisions and be captains of our own destiny. -- Daniel C. Dennett, Tufts University


... required reading for anybody interested in what neuroscience has to say about our capacity to make responsible decisions and be captains of our own destiny. -- Daniel C. Dennett, Tufts University


Author Information

Hans Helmut Kornhuber was born in 1928 in Königsberg, Germany, and passed away in 2009. He was a brilliant neurologist and neurophysiologist known worldwide. After his release in 1949 from a Russian prisoner of war camp, he studied medicine in Munich, Göttingen, Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Basel. He was trained in clinical neurophysiology at the Neurological University Hospital in Freiburg and became full professor of neurology at the University of Ulm, Germany in 1966. Lüder Deecke was born in 1938 in Lohe, Germany. He studied medicine at the universities of Freiburg, Hamburg, and Vienna. He received his clinical education at the Neurological University Hospital in Freiburg and at the University of Ulm. Deecke became full professor of neurology and head of the Neurological University Hospital in Vienna in 1985. In 1990, he founded and subsequently chaired the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Functional Brain Topography.

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