Kai Solonka - 2023
Files
Publication Date
11-10-2023
Digital Publisher
Digital Commons at St. Mary's University
Disciplines
Higher Education
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Format
MOV
Description
“Neuropenitentiary” utilizes the naturalist-compatibilist interpretation of free will presented by Daniel C. Dennett in “Freedom Evolves” (2003) to argue for the brain’s tragically natural fallibility in preserving autonomous agency when afflicted with trauma (PTSD, developmental trauma, etc.). When juxtaposed with the naturalistic framework provided by Dennett, Bessel Van Der Kolk’s recent (2014) in-depth medical and academic accounts of trauma (whether in the context of PTSD, intergenerational trauma, or developmental trauma) elucidated in “The Body Keeps the Score” present necessary and sufficient conditions for the loss or obstruction of autonomous agency on a physiological level – in that humans’ evolutionarily developed sense of rationality, made possible by the neurophysiological functions of the brain in an attempt to maintain homeostasis through hormonal regulation and conceptual recollection, is jeopardized by the overwhelming stressors of a traumatic event. Finally, this paper ties these points together to elucidate the loss of individual autonomy at the hands of trauma itself and provides an explanation for free will as an evolutionary development, contingent upon the efficiency of neurophysiological function. As an example, “Neuropenitentiary” encourages the continued study of naturalistic free will for the advancement of its ancillary application to other similarly concerned interdisciplinary fields.
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Publisher
Digital Commons at St. Mary's University
City
San Antonio, Texas