Top-Down Causation and Autonomy in Complex Systems

Abstract

Evolutionary evidence shows that complex dynamical systems become increasingly self-directed and decoupled from merely energetic forces over time. In this paper I analyze these transformations, concentrating on changes in the type of top-down causation that characterizes such self-organized and autopoietic processes. Specifically, I show that the top-down selection criteria of these systems makes some of them autonomous, and that because once evolution reaches humans the criteria according to which voluntary actions are selected are semantic and symbolic – and can be self-consciously chosen – human self-direction constitutes a form of strong autonomy that can arguably be considered “free will.”