I want you to consider the possibility that your parents did not shape you as a person. Despite how it feels, your mother and father (or whoever raised you) likely imprinted almost nothing on your personality that has persisted into adulthood. Pause for a minute and let that heresy wash across your synapses. It flies in the face of common sense, does it not? In fact, it’s the type of claim that is unwise to make unless you have some compelling evidence to back it up. Even then it will elicit the ire of many.
Tag determinism
Recently, I received another cracking review for my Free Will? book. It was the first book I wrote and heralded…
I received this email through the website contact form the other night. It moved me.
Subject: I was always going to write this email.
Hey Jonathan,
I recently had an article (“Is Society Accepting That Free Will Is an Illusion?”) in the Free Inquiry magazine published in the US, which was, as far as I can tell, well received. In fact, Tom Clark liked it enough to say and post it at Naturalism.org. Tom Clark stated:
“Damn good article – the site needed new content and it totally filled the bill. Keep up the good work!”
Compatibilism is a cop out, as according to John Searle, esteemed philosopher. I think I agree! Watch this Closer To…
‘Trick Slattery is a great resource for infographics and good introductory book on free will and determinism. Check out his…
I recently wrote an article for Free Inquiry titled Is Society Accepting That Free Will Is an Illusion? The article is…
I contribute a short segment called “Pearced Off!” to a skeptical podcast called Skepticule. Recently, they invited me on for…
John D. Bargh is a psychologist with an interest in matters concerning free will. He edited a superb book on psychology and free will which I would advise anyone to get called Are We Free? From it, this excerpt was interesting, especially given recent conversations defending naturalism with a fellow Tippling Philosopher by email who thinks that human minds are too far removed from the rest of the animal kingdom to be explicable by naturalistic evolution (pp. 145-146):
I recently wrote an article for the Free Inquiry on free will and its growing acceptance as an illusion in modern society. The other day, an essayist-veteran-humanist-naturalist-freethinker-lawyer in his 90s wrote this piece for the Charleston Gazette. Thanks! Here is an excerpt:
This will definitely be TL;DR (Too long; didn’t read), but…
In discussing some thing on a private thread with a fellow Tippling Philosopher, I have written quite a bit on free will, evolution and evolutionary psychology which I would hat to go to waste and would love to keep for reference and posterity. None is ground-breaking or anything you wouldn’t know, but there are some good links to refer to in future conversations.
Consciousness — the internal dialogue that seems to govern one’s thoughts and actions — is far less powerful than people believe, serving as a passive conduit rather than an active force that exerts control, according to a new theory proposed by an SF State researcher.
Here is an excerpt from my book, Free Will? An investigation into whether we have free will or whether I was always going to write this book:
Firstly, let us look at whether God himself has free will at his disposal. This is important because one of the primary characteristics of God is that he is perfectly free, not being constrained by the sorts of influences that humans are. It is often said that if God created all things then every thing that he created must have some attribute of his. Man has free will and, therefore, one of God’s attributes must be that of free will. Of course, this might be a circular argument, begging the question of whether we have free will ourselves. The bible is littered with examples of where God supposedly chooses people, things, cities and tribes. Here, in Numbers 16:6-8 God chooses who will be holy:
The great Gregg Caruso has produced a fascinating looking paper which I can’t wait to read. I have often advocated the…
I did an interview yesterday on the popular UK podcast Godless Spellchecker mainly on the topic of free will, but…
I have just had an article published in the “Free Inquiry” magazine, looking at whether society is coming to grips…
What it says on the tin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L5XbuxKNI8 A massive frustration in the lack of defining the terms led to a…
The flagship BBC religion, ethics and politics show, The Big Questions, this week featured a whole hour on free will. I was asked to attend ass a front row guest on the subject in York for the pre-recorded show last Sunday. Here are my thoughts on the actual content of what was discussed.
I have been having a long-standing argument with a relative newcomer to our pub philosophy group (The Tippling Philosophers) over free will. He believes in libertarian free will, though it does appear to be largely based on an argument from wishful thinking and being unwilling to confront the ramifications of not having it, rather than a robust understanding of the philosophical debate.
It finally came to pass as the producers liked the cut of my jib when they phoned me to ask me about my views on free will; a sort of a test run to see if I sounded OK. I passed.