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Freedom

It has long been recognized that free will appears to be incompatible with the causality observed in the rest of the universe. There is now evidence from neuroscience that free will does not really exist. Does the fact that many people - including many philosophers - find this conclusion absolutely unacceptable constitute a manifestation of the limits of the human mind's abilities?
Accepted:
August 2, 2012

Comments

Stephen Maitzen
August 2, 2012 (changed August 2, 2012) Permalink

My diagnosis is different: I think the arguments claiming that causality (specifically, deterministic causation) rules out free will, or claiming that neuroscientific results cast doubt on the existence of free will, are bad arguments. This issue came up recently here: see the discussion at Question 4792, particularly the reply by Professor Nahmias and the book review he links to.

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