Question

1. Why does Wegner think that there is an illusion of conscious will?

2. Why does Wegner hold that we have, at best, poor access to our intentions?

3. If what Wegner says is true, what is the implication for epistemology? Is it merely a rebuke of the epistemology of self-knowledge, or does it imply a wider problem for knowledge?

Answer 1

Answer-1- Daniel M. Wegner was a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. According to him, the human sense of free will is just an illusion. He conducted many experiments in which he found that people's will gives shape to events which are actually decided by others. He said that the conscious will is a thought that comes before an action. Wegner thinks that there is an illusion of conscious will because we need to determine whether different actions are generated by ourselves or by others. This decision process has three main elements which are priority, consistency and exclusitivity. According to Daniel Wegner, if our thoughts originates before our actions and there are no other causes for our decision then we get the feeling conscious will.