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Consciousness and free will are concepts that play a central role in how we understand ourselves, our decisions, and our sense of agency. Are we truly the authors of our own choices, or does our brain make decisions before conscious intention even arises?
During the lecture, we will look beneath the surface of the mind and examine what contemporary psychology and neuroscience have to say about consciousness and free will. I will discuss both well-known and lesser-known experiments that demonstrate how conscious experience and the sense of control over our actions emerge, as well as research that challenges our intuitive beliefs about autonomy and decision-making.
Together, we will consider whether free will truly exists or whether it is a complex construct of the mind—and why this question has real consequences for how we think about responsibility, change, and personal development.
The lecture will be an invitation to reflect on the nature of consciousness, the mechanisms of decision-making, and how scientific discoveries can transform our understanding of ourselves and our relationships with others.
Paweł Holas, Professor at the University of Warsaw — clinical practitioner, researcher, and science communicator; certified cognitive-behavioral therapist and supervisor; teacher and supervisor of mindfulness and compassion-based trainings (MBCT, MBSR, MSC); psychiatrist and academic lecturer. Professor at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy; head of the e-MPAT Lab (e-Mindfulness, Psychotherapy and Technology Lab). President of the Mindfulness Development Foundation and head of the postgraduate program “Mindfulness and Compassion: Foundations, Research, and Psychotherapy” at SWPS University in Warsaw.
