Excellent take-down by Jessica Riskin of the extremely misguided idea that science tells us we have no free will. Riskin's diagnosis is very similar in spirit and content to @adamfrank4.bsky.social @mgleiser.bsky.social and my ideas in The Blind Spot. www.nybooks.com/articles/202... - ThreadSky

evanthompson.bsky.social • 41 days ago

Excellent take-down by Jessica Riskin of the extremely misguided idea that science tells us we have no free will. Riskin's diagnosis is very similar in spirit and content to @adamfrank4.bsky.social @mgleiser.bsky.social and my ideas in The Blind Spot. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/02/13/turtles-all-the-way-up-determined-robert-sapolsky/

Comments

asitisnow.bsky.social•40 days ago

The concept of free will (or a lack thereof) emerges from the assumption of a mechanistic and "quantized" world, but the world isn't anything like that (as Zeno, Nagarjuna, and Bergson, among many others, have shown).

billga2603.bsky.social•41 days ago

It's not an illusion that is probably an illusion.

thepopper.bsky.social•40 days ago

Its a cool exploration of historical events and influences on philosophy but does a poor job addressing the explanatory power of neurobiology for human action, emotion and cognition. No discussion of cases like Phineas Gage nor findings of scientists like Benjamin Libet just analysis of abstractions

pyrrho19.bsky.social•39 days ago

Is belief (or not) in free will political? "People are absolutely accountable for their economic and social standing" vs "people are born into privilege or poverty and the poor are unlikely to escape that without help."

Is it, therefore, a false dichotomy?

jimhphoto.com•41 days ago

Here's the point that's being lost in all this: "free will" is just our name for something we directly experience. We can't deny its existence, any more than that of "red" or "time".

thepopper.bsky.social•40 days ago

Sure, but there's a mountain of evidence showing the idea you can "free-will" against your own body's biochemical processes is incorrect. The problem isn't describing experiences of volition it's setting people up for failure and blaming that failure on how they "free-willed" all wrong.

neuroyogacara.bsky.social•40 days ago

We didn’t need science to see how weird and misguided the idea of free will is (also intentions, actions, and akrasia are pervasive features of human experience, it’s just that ‘free will’ is the wrong idea for capturing them) 😉

evanthompson.bsky.social•40 days ago

I think that depends a lot on whose idea of free will we're talking about.

rendle.dev•40 days ago

I’ve not encountered a definition of free will that was compatible with the idea of a deterministic physical universe.

evanthompson.bsky.social•40 days ago

Determinism is a feature of models, not the universe.

rendle.dev•40 days ago

Citation needed.

evanthompson.bsky.social•39 days ago

See our discussion of phase space in The Blind Spot and the further things we reference there. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553032/the-blind-spot/

neuroyogacara.bsky.social•39 days ago

I doubt that it’s out there; but if you have one available I would love to see a conclusive demonstration of determinism that’s more than just a mathematical model according to which things are deterministic

neuroyogacara.bsky.social•40 days ago

Hard agree!

neuroyogacara.bsky.social•40 days ago

I’m sure that’s right. I’ve just never seen an account of free will that didn’t accidentally smuggle in a lot of retributive biases, and hunches about why the willing part matters. Freedom and agency are core concerns for me, it’s the will part that I find troubling

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply