ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns about the relation between neuroscience and traditional philosophical problems of mind. It points out the most recent challenge to free will come from neuroscience. To properly evaluate this challenge, we have to understand something about how neuroscientists go about justifying their theories about the relationship between mind and brain. The chapter addresses how philosophical reflection on biology can make inroads on the problem of free will. The metaphysical sense of free will, this idea that Rodrigo could have done differently, has been threatened repeatedly by the idea of determinism. Some people present the problem of determinism mainly as a problem that stems from accepting "physicalism". We are physical beings, and as such, we must obey the laws of physics. Our thoughts and emotions are just chemical reactions in the brain, and chemical reactions in the brain are as subject to the laws of physics as falling boulders.
