Benjamin Libet's Experiment
example · science-physics ·
retold in 10 talks
Libet's experiment showed neurons fire before conscious decision, apparently proving free will illusory. Žižek notes Libet himself argued freedom lies in the capacity to say 'no' in that split second, freedom as veto, not initiation.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 8
“he proved that before you make the decision... the command in york. nererves to your hand to move are already on the way.”
“Your primordial form of freedom is to say no, to stop it.”
“He claims we are looking for freedom at the wrong place... freedom... is not a positive decision... you can sabotage it, block it.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Benjamin Libet9Paul Churchland4Patricia Churchland4Thomas Metzinger4Owen Flanagan2Pol Pot2Saskia Sassen2Ezra Pound2
alongside works
Every retelling 9
Libet's experiment showed neurons fire before conscious decision, apparently proving free will illusory. Žižek notes Libet himself argued freedom lies in the capacity to say 'no' in that split second, freedom as veto, not initiation., illustrating free will,consciousness-mind,Cartesian subject
Žižek discusses Libet's neuroscientific experiment showing neural commands precede conscious decision, but highlights Libet's 'Hegelian' addition: free will exists in the ability to block or sabotage an action (the 'zero level of freedom')., illustrating freedom as user's illusion,zero level of freedom
Libet showed brain activity precedes conscious decision by a split second. Žižek argues freedom lies not in initiating the action, but in the ability to say 'no' and veto the predetermined neural command., illustrating freedom as the freedom to say no,user's illusion
Libet’s experiment shows neural activity precedes conscious decision by a split second. However, Libet argues freedom lies in the ability to 'sabotage' or block this action, not in making the positive choice., illustrating zero level of freedom
Libet measured brain readiness potentials and showed that before a subject makes a conscious decision to move, the brain has already initiated the action, but Libet himself, in a Hegelian move, located free will not in positive decisions but in the capacity to veto an already-initiated action., illustrating freedom as negativity,free will,consciousness
Libet showed that neurons decide a fraction of a second before conscious awareness of a decision, apparently disproving free will, but Libet himself argues freedom is the capacity to veto/block neurally-decided actions, not to positively choose., illustrating freedom as the power to say no,free will / consciousness,biogenetics and subjectivity