Many contemporary philosophers question whether we have free will and moral responsibility. While it seems like we can choose whether to act morally, certain scientific evidence indicates that may not be true. However, research shows we can alter our breathing patterns, and in doing so, improve our moral decision-making. We may never know whether we consciously control our actions. But we should behave as though we have free will and moral responsibility.
Is Breath Control Mind Control?
I began February’s article with a quote from influential yogi and author B.K.S. Iyengar: “Mind is the king of the senses, breath is the king of the mind, and the nerves are king of the breath.” At first glance, this description suggests my mind is at the mercy of factors outside my control. My nervous system controls my breathing patterns, and my breathing controls my mind. This account raises the question: Are we in control of our decisions? Am I like the injured hiker or stressed spouse in that article, constantly controlled by my nerves and breath?
As I argued in that article, maybe not. I can change the way I breathe, and in doing so, I can alter my moral decision-making. But what if this apparent breath control is just another illusion? In my first essay on this subject, I raised the skeptical possibility that I am a brain in a vat, with electrodes stimulating the relevant parts of my brain to give me the perception that I am living in a body in the external world. I don’t control my breath—the perception of breathing is caused by electrodes stimulating the relevant brain regions. Setting aside this challenge, there is still an explanation for brain function that rejects conscious deliberation or free will.
The Unconscious Brain
In the 1980s, the American scientist Benjamin Libet performed a series of experiments in which he recorded subjects’ brain waves as they made spontaneous finger movements. The subjects did so while watching a clock and told researchers the instant they decided to wiggle their fingers. But the brain scans revealed that the subjects’ movements were preceded by several hundred milliseconds of unconscious brain activity. Libet termed this activity the “readiness potential.” Because the readiness potential was unconscious, it was believed that subjects’ finger movements were not controlled by their own free will.
Similarly, a 2008 study by German scientists showed that the outcomes of subjects’ decisions could be observed in their brains up to ten seconds before the subjects were consciously aware of making a decision. In 2010, scientists at UCLA used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to predict more accurately than their subjects how likely the subjects were to use sunscreen the week after they had viewed a video promoting sunscreen use.
Determinism, Free Will and Moral Responsibility
More recently, free will skeptics like neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky have argued that scientific understanding precludes the possibility of conscious deliberation. According to Sapolsky, “Everything from the neurobiology of a second ago to evolutionary pressures over the last million years goes into how you became [a certain] sort of person.” In other words, we do not freely choose our actions. Instead, they are determined by evolution, the biological and chemical processes in our brains, and the physical laws of the universe.
Based on the available evidence, Sapolsky is an adherent of determinism. This philosophical doctrine claims that every event is the direct causal result of the state of the world at some prior instant and the laws of nature. Under determinism, when a person acts, it is impossible for that person to have chosen a different action than they did. If true, determinism would apply to all actions, from the color of shirt you put on this morning to your road rage incident on the drive to work.
Determinists believe that, contrary to my previous argument, we do not control whether we act morally or immorally. And if that is true, it makes no sense to praise or blame people for their moral or immoral actions. After all, they exerted no control over those behaviors. Consequently, punishing wrongdoers is morally dubious. It might make sense to remove repeatedly harmful individuals from society in order to protect everyone else. But anything approaching an eye for an eye retribution would be abhorrent.
Act Like You’re Free
So where does that leave us? Contrary to what I wrote in February, are we really at the mercy of our nerves and environment? Do we have free will and moral responsibility? Maybe, maybe not. However, I think that article’s conclusions about breath can point a way forward. As a society, we want people to treat others in a way that aligns with our shared moral beliefs. As a person, I don’t want to treat people (especially those I care about) cruelly or unfairly. Even after a stressful workday, I don’t want to be the kind of person who snaps at my spouse.
In that case, I should not accept that my environment or my nervous system dictates my moral decision-making. On the contrary, I know I can change my breathing pattern to put me in a psychological state that better aligns with my moral desires.
Take a Different Path
Life is not a single, unbroken path. There are different options, possibilities, branches along that path. Whether I choose to follow one branch over the other or my apparent choice is causally determined, the outcome is the same: I take a different direction than the path I was on.
In the same vein, if I alter my breathing pattern, that doesn’t mean I freely chose to do so. It is possible I was born with better moral coping mechanisms or conditioned by my environment to develop them. Changing my breathing from one pattern to another doesn’t prove that free will is true and determinism is false. But as long as I achieve the desired moral action, whether I was able to do so via my own free will doesn’t much matter. When faced with a moral decision, I should not seek solace in the possible truth that I have no conscious control over my choices, especially if that means not challenging the environmental conditions that might compromise my moral decision-making.
Change for the Better
We may never know whether our decisions are truly free or entirely determined. But we know we can change—freely or not—our breathing patterns. In doing so, we set ourselves up for improved moral decision-making. Even if we do not have free will and moral responsibility, we should act as though we do and change what we can to safeguard our moral standing.