Question

Read the passage and then answer the question.

Do human beings have the freedom to make their own choices, to act out of their own
free will, or are all choices, in some sense, predetermined by prior causes and physical
laws? In 2007, neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes sought to answer this question by
conducting an experiment: volunteer subjects were seated in a brain scanner and were
asked to press a button with their left or right index fingers whenever they felt the urge.
Haynes's team scrutinized the subjects' brain activity in real time, carefully monitoring
the results and searching for patterns.
The results were surprising. The team discovered that they could observe a pattern of
brain activity that would allow them to predict a subject's decision to press a button up to
seven seconds before the subject actually reported making his or her decision. This
prediction process was accurate sixty percent of the time.
4
While some scientists have discounted this study for relying on an oversimplified
decision-making process, these results have given other scientists hope. Perhaps, in the
future, scientists will be able to accurately predict the results of even more complicated
decision-making processes. In the meantime, the question looms: if our choices can be
predicted before we even make them, then do we really have the freedom to choose?
What is the meaning of predetermined as used in the passage?
approved in advance
usually known in
advance
set in advance
impossible to know in
advance

Answer 1

In the context of the passage, 'predetermined' means that choices or events are 'set in advance' possibly by previous conditions or laws.

Step-by-step explanation:

The meaning of predetermined as used in the passage is best understood as set in advance. In the context of the experiments and discussions surrounding free will and determinism, the term reflects the philosophical concept that decisions or events are established, or pre-decided, by prior conditions or laws before they actually occur.

This touches on deep philosophical queries about whether our choices are genuinely free or whether they are influenced by an array of factors that virtually decide the outcome before we are even aware of making a choice.