Answer to Question 1
- Physicalists believe that in the final analysis mental states (including consciousness in the most general sense) are identical with, reducible to, or explainable in terms of physical brain states.
- Since our conscious mental life is identical with, reducible to, or explainable in terms of physical brain states, which themselves are governed deterministic causal laws, there is no place for free will to exist.
- Research showing brain activity several seconds before awareness of making a choice has been cited as supporting physicalism, but other says that neuroscientists do not yet know exactly what is happening during that brain activity and more research is needed.
- There is also research suggesting that people are more likely to act unethically - by cheating - if they believe that their choices are determined by factors beyond their control, essentially making a self-serving choice because they believe they have no choice.
Answer to Question 2
- Frye identifies this as the double bind, which she describes as a situation in which options are reduced to a very few and all of them expose one to penalty, censure or deprivation.
- Women face a situation in which no matter how they respond to external constraints on their freedom they will incur punishment.
- For example, in Western society, messages about being sexually active often conflict, leaving women with no meaningfully free choice. No matter which choice she makes, she is left in a less than ideal situation.
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