Does consciousness have causative effects?

Consciousness is often associated with “free-will” or “agency” although they are not the same thing. Our intuition tells us that much of what we do is the result of conscious choice and that, in any particular situation, we could have chosen differently. However, some people believe that freedom of choice is an illusion and that, in reality, we are powerless to affect our actions. Our apparent choices are actually the inevitable result of our past experience, genes, persuasion etc. Although it seems certain that we have a lot less freedom of choice than we think we have, the actual extent of our ability to choose is disputed.

At one extreme is “epiphenominalism” [Huxley 1874] which is the view that although we are conscious of events in the world, we are merely observers like someone watching a football match on TV. We are spectators but we are powerless to influence proceedings even though we may believe we can. If we cheer on our favourite team, sometimes that might be followed by their scoring a goal. Although this can give the impression of causation, that impression is false. Epiphenomenalism has severe difficulties but, on the other hand, if consciousness does affect behaviour, as it appears to, nobody knows how.

If everything, including our brains, is completely governed by the laws of physics then everything is deterministic and there is no place left for free will even if there is any place for consciousness. This means that either free-will is an illusion or that the laws of physics as we know them are incomplete. Attempts to invoke the indeterminacy of Quantum Mechanics have not been convincing.