Free Will in Islamic Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience: Ṭabāṭabāʾī and Gazzaniga in Dialogue

Authors
Zahra Rasouli 1
Mohammad kathem Elmi sola 2
1 Ferdowsi University of Mashahad
2 Facolty if Theoligy
Abstract
Free will is still one of the most challenging debates among philosophers and theologians and, even in recent decades, scientists’ particularly cognitive neuroscientists. For Michael Gazzaniga (b.1939), as a cognitive neuro-scientist, free will is nothing but an illusion. For him human’s freedom is, in fact, to have more choices in their actions which occurs in their continuous endeavor in the environment and social interactions. In Islamic philosophy, Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d.1402/1981) as one of the most eminent contemporary repre-sentatives of the Transcendent philosophy founded by Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/ 1640), has specific innovative ideas on this matter. According to him, human’s free will is ontologically creational and innate, and all the actions chosen, preferred and issued by an agent through knowledge and volition are free, even if this choice has been limited by natural or human obstacles. For both of the thinkers, therefore, the division of actions into free and non-free and the problem of free will and determinism, in general, is a conventional issue that is more suitable to the social-ethical realm than to the philosophical one. This paper tries to compare and evaluate the two thinkers’ positions.
Keywords
Volition
Free Will
Interpreter of Experience
Conventional Perceptions
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Metaphysical Research
Volume 7, English Special Issue
June 2026
Pages 237-255