Comments on: Book review – Determined: Life Without Free Will

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 04:49:44 +0000

I really enjoyed your review! Thanks for putting into words what I felt was missing from a fun read.

— an aspiring economist curious about causality and counterfactual behavior

By: Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will - 3 Quarks Daily

Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will - 3 Quarks Daily — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 16:35:04 +0000

[…] giving me the chance to dip my toes into the free-will debate. I just reviewed Robert Sapolsky’s Determined which presented a case against. Though successfully showing that we have less of it than we think, […]

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By: Book review – Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will | The Inquisitive Biologist

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 18:59:48 +0000

[…] me the chance to dip my toes into the free-will debate. I just reviewed Robert Sapolsky’s Determined which presented a case against. Though successfully showing that we have less of it than we think, […]

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By: Review of "Determined: Life Without Free Will" by Robert Sapolsky - 3 Quarks Daily

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 19:35:06 +0000

[…] More here. […]

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By: bormgans

bormgans — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:18:05 +0000

In reply to inquisitivebiologist.

Yes, a big part of the problems in these matters are semantic issues. Looking forward to that next review!

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By: inquisitivebiologist

inquisitivebiologist — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:10:55 +0000

In reply to bormgans.

Thanks for the link. Definitely a topic that stirs debate. My impression (that is admittedly not grounded in much having so far read just one book on it) is that a lot of confusion and disagreement stems from a lack of agreed-upon definitions, meaning debates circle around endlessly.

I have almost finished Free Agents which to me presents a far more compelling argument. I will need a moment to gather my thoughts on that as it’s is some pretty heady stuff that I found very insightful.

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By: bormgans

bormgans — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 17:18:51 +0000

I´m in the minority camp too. Emergence boils down to magic, as if it somehow would escape causality. Predictability doesn´t say anything about downward causality, so it´s not really relevant.

What muddles the debate is that some are ´more´ determined than others: e.g. a drug addict has additional causal constrains to his behavior. The same goes for prisoners, the poor, etc.

The other thing is the fact that we do make choices whole the time. The question boils down to whether we could have made a different choice in the exact same circumstances.

Of interest too: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0915161107

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