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Free Will (2012)

by Sam Harris(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 20

ISBN

1451683405 (ISBN13: 9781451683400)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Free Press

review 1: I clung to my belief in free will for as long as I possibly could while reading this book; I really didn't want to agree with him, and I was resolute in my own ideas regarding complete personal agency. I clung to my belief because I needed that freedom, but surprisingly, after dissecting every sentence in this little gem of a book, I now feel more free and more compassionate than ever. This book is a lesson in kindness and understanding, towards both oneself and others. I think everyone should read it.
review 2: The book is an exercise in self-refuting, 'straw man' logic, and the fatal flaw is revealed on page 13, where Harris asserts that, in order to be free, '...you would need to be aware of all the factors that determine your thoughts and actions, and you w... moreould need to have complete control over those factors.' By thus caricaturing and impossibly burdening his libertarian opponent, and indeed by avoiding the work of any actual libertarian thinker whatsoever (e.g. William James, Jeffrey Schwartz, Ben Libett, anybody at all?!), he is able to launch a seemingly unassailable argument to the contrary. (To his credit he does make brief mention of Daniel Dennett, who employs all the same neuro-scientific evidence to the opposing conclusion that we are, in fact, free in a compatibilist sense.) The problem, of course, is that Harris' definition is not an accurate portrayal of the libertarian's position, which by no means necessarily entails that we are unconditioned by unconscious forces, or that we should have 'complete control' over all the factors that determine thought and action. (What libertarian has EVER said these things?) Via such mis-definition, and by further setting the standard impossibly low, his complete determinism sails right over the bar to the confident conclusion '...There is simply no intellectually respectable position from which to deny this [i.e. that our behaviour is fully determined by the atoms of our brains.]' (p. 4) In fact, Harris persistently uses the word 'determined' where a libertarian thinker might prefer the word 'conditioned' [by the past], which further obscures a logically necessary distinction, and thereby begs the question at hand. The constant use of pejoratives (i.e. that libertarians believe in 'magic,' (p. 16), or that they have been 'taken in' by an illusion now dispelled by science (p. 62), or that they are 'lying to themselves' (p. 56)) adds to the sophomorism and sophistry of the presentation. (In this, the book is worthily dedicated to 'Hitch.') ...I'm left wondering what the point is of making a philosophical argument, presumably with the intent of persuading an audience, if you don't believe in freedom, or its concomitant: persuasion. (Moreover, you can make all his arguments about the criminal justice system on entirely other grounds than denying free will.) Finally, it is important to say something about the leap that is made from 1. a region of the brain is active before we are consciously aware of the activity, to the unwarranted conclusion 2. that all our choices are completely determined by atomic activity of our brain. Imagine a computer that has been programed with a random number generator. To acquire the random number, you have to start the program, so that the program is activated prior to the generation of the number. Further suppose that it is possible to detect that the program has been activated before the random number has been generated by the program. Is the number generated not, then, still random (i.e. undetermined and unpredictable in advance of its generation)? It simply does not follow that prior brain activity at the micro-level is fully determinative of the choice manifested at the macro-level. Harris has not only mistaken correlation for causation, but he has failed to establish causal determinism against mere causal conditioning.) ...For me, this bombed. less

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