incompatibilism

Book review – Determined: Life Without Free Will

10-minute read
keywords: neurobiology, philosophy

Do we have free will or not? Despite millennia of debate, this question stands as one of those seemingly unresolvable conundrums. I admit it has never kept me up at night; yes, biology influences and constrains our behaviour, but it sure feels like we have free will. Beyond that, however, I confess to ignorance on this subject. With the caveat that I do not expect one or even two books to definitively settle this matter, I was very excited by the simultaneous publication last October of Determined: Life Without Free Will and Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. Well, guess I have no choice on this particular occasion: this pair just cries out for a double review.

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