Free Will and Determinism

A collection of 198 posts

Consciousness

Yet another experiment showing that conscious “decisions” are made unconsciously, and in advance

This is a superb article from Jerry Coyne over at Why Evolution Is True about the work being done building on and improving upon the Benjamin Libet experiments which I have talked about before online and in my book. Thanks you so much to Jerry who has allowed me to repost his article. Please, please

determinism

2 counter-apologetics segments available!

Two episodes of Skepticule have become available with my counter-apologetics segment, called Pearced Off. The first episode (44) features my piece on free will as an incoherent gift from God, which can be found here. My segment starts at 29.10.

causality

Libertarian Free Will and the Principle of Alternate Possibilities

So I am arguing in many different forums at the moment about free will, and in particular, about whether Libertarian Free Will (LFW) is compatible with the Kalam Cosmological Argument. i define LFW here as the ability to choose otherwise. That means I invoke the Principle of Alternate Possibilit

determinism

Libertarian Free Will Defeats the Kalam Cosmological Argument

I was posting on Randal Rauser's blog recently and made a throw away comment about the Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) and libertarian free will. It is an argument which have meant to spell out for some time and so I guess this is as good a time as any.

compatibilism

Interview with Tom Clark of the Center For Naturalism

Tom Clark is the Director for the Center for Naturalism (CFN), an organisation which harbours the excellent resource Naturalism.Org. The Mission for CFN is stated as follows: The Center for Naturalism (CFN) is an educational and advocacy organization devoted to increasing public awareness of natu

determinism

Tom Clark's Transcript of Sam Harris' Delusion of Free Will Talk

Tom Clark, or the Center For Naturalism, and someone whom I will shortly be interviewing, has created this transcript of the excellent talk given by Sam Harris at the Dangerous Ideas event in Sydney recently. Tom has kindly allowed me to repost it here. It might not be exact, but

determinism

Bad Decisions Arise from Faulty Information, Not Faulty Brain Circuits

Some research out seems to support an idea that 'bad decisions' that we make are as a result of the quality of the information coming in rather than the quality of the systems working on that information. Of course, this may call into question the quality of the systems actually responsible for coll

free will

Schopenhauer on free will

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills. I've always liked this quote from Arthur Schopenhauer, so much so that I thought I'd post it here, though it does have a few forms and is often misquoted, as I have no doubt done.

crime

Brain Scans Might Predict Future Criminal Behavior

What is frustrating about this article is the fact that Science Daily produced it and I saw it just as I returned from giving a talk on free will to the Dorset Humanists. Grr. I talked about similar predicitve pieces of research, such as lack of fear conditioning in toddlers and criminal records, as

determinism

New Studies Link Gene to Selfish Behavior in Kids, Find Other Children Natural Givers

Can't believe I missed this one. Interesting, and something I will bring up in my talk tonight on free will at Southampton University to the Atheist Society. Research into prosocial (kind) behaviour is always interesting, and something I have documented here, here and here. there is a mix of genetic

determinism

Getting Around the Uncertainty Principle: Physicists Make First Direct Measurements of Polarization States of Light

Science Daily: Mar. 3, 2013 — Researchers at the University of Rochester and the University of Ottawa have applied a recently developed technique to directly measure for the first time the polarization states of light. Their work both overcomes some important challenges of Heisenberg's famous Uncert

brain

Rats' brains linked together to pass information directly. Mental (well, yeah).

Wow. This is mind blowing. Determinists, or near-determinists (such that quantum indeterminism may be true, but that it does not affect the macro level, and certainly not free will issues), will find this Science Daily article particularly interesting. Rats, and even pairs over thousands of miles di

determinism

Red Brain, Blue Brain: Republicans and Democrats Process Risk Differently, Research Finds

I love research like this, it just fascinates me, and adds to the mountains of empirical evidence that supports the logical and philosophical evidence / argumentation which underpins determinism (or, more accurately, the lack of libertarian free will) about which I wrote my first book - Free Will? A

determinism

Found: Altruism Brain Cells

Brain cells that fire only when monkeys act unselfishly may provide clues to the neural basis of altruism, according to a new study. In the study, the cells fire in rhesus monkeys when they gave juice away, but not when they received it. The findings, published Dec. 23 in the journal Nature Neurosci

Free Will and Determinism

Epigenetics May Be a Critical Factor Contributing to Homosexuality, Study Suggests

I have commented before on homosexuality, particularly with regards to the moral proclamations of Christianity, here and here. I think the subject is incredibly interesting in light of the ideas of genetics, and within the context of free will. In my first book (available from the amazon bar on the

Consciousness

Language - who's choosing my words?

I find this amazing. Language. I can have a 45 minute conversation with a friend. Neither of us consciously think up individual words. Our word choices (even as I am typing this) are non-consciously chosen. At 150 words a minute, that's a lot of words decided upon non-consciously. I generally appear

compatibilism

Gregg Caruso's "Free Will and Consciousness" Reviewed

I recently came across Gregg Caruso's book Free Will and Consciousness: A Determinist Account of the Illusion of Free Will. Gregg dropped me a line after coming across my blog and we got chatting. I have not read this book yet, but it seems to ally itself pretty strongly with my first book, Free Wi

determinism

My last talk is now a podcast: "Free Will?"

My last public talk which I gave, on free will, has now been made into a podcast which can be heard here. The talk, given to Portsmouth Skeptics in a Pub on 14th June 2012, was a nice informal gathering of about 50-odd people of varying skeptical persuasions. I have not listened to it yet, but the Q

daniel dennett

Free Will: “We are influenced, but not determined” – the 80-20% approach as nonsense

One of the most common defences of Libertarian Free Will (or contra-causal free will) is what I sometimes term the 80-20% approach. Most people, to some degree or another, accept that our lives are at least somewhat, and in most cases, a good deal influenced. This may be by genetic, biological or en

Cosmology

Time, Free Will and the Block Universe

So I came across this site on my internet travels (actually, through a naturalism group on facebook) and it provides a really good introduction to a number of difficult topics within the realms of physics and cosmology. In this piece, physicist Andrew Thomas elucidates on the topic of the reality

determinism

Free Will Is Un-Natural

As you've probably guessed, I am interested in all things free will. Recently, I was reading a chapter from "Are We Free?" entitled Free Will Is Un-Natural by John A. Bargh. Bargh sets out the obvious issues: The psychological issue of whether free will exists thus

determinism

'Psychopaths' have an impaired sense of smell - a slight bouquet of determinism

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) — A new study suggests that a poor sense of smell may be a marker for psychopathic traits. People with psychopathic tendencies have an impaired sense of smell, which points to inefficient processing in the front part of the brain. These findings by Mehmet Mahmut and Richard

determinism

Life Without Free Will

Sam Harris, author of Free Will (obviously not as good as my book Free Will? which has a question mark and then a subtitle, so it must be better...;)), has written this great little essay. I'll let him do the talking: One of the most common objections to