Three Illusions Podcast #11 – Do Brain Injuries Affect Free Will?

I’ve heard a few stories lately about people with brain injuries and how they might affect their “free will”. On today’s show I talk about those stories and think about them from a Three Illusions perspective. Want to subscribe to the series? You can find us on iTunes, or click the “Subscribe” links below this […]

Three Illusions Podcast #2 – Science & Morality

Today we continue our free will discussion, but start with the question: how does the election of Trump fit into free will? Then we talk a little about recent neuroscience studies into free will and finish with a discussion about free will, morality and justice. Want to subscribe to the series? You can find us […]

Three Illusions Podcast #1 – The Illusion of Free Will

On our new podcast series, Ray and I will be making our way through my 2011 book “The Three Illusions” – a guide to using a basic understanding of science and some common sense to rid yourself of anger, guilt, anxiety, fear and emotional pain. In this episode, we begin a journey to investigate whether […]

Dennett’s Compatabilism Is Just Dumb

I just finished reading Daniel C Dennett’s latest book “Intuition Pumps And Other Tools For Thinking” and, while it’s overall an engaging book, his final section is just plain disappointing. In the final chapters, Dennett attempts to demonstrate some of his “intuition pumps” (tools for improving our thinking about difficult problems) by tackling three very hard […]

Stephen Hawking on Free Will

I’m currently reading Stephen Hawking’s most recent book (co-authored with Leonard Mlodinow) “The Grand Design” and was pleased to find the following paragraphs about free will. “Do people have free will? If we have free will, where in the evolutionary tree did it develop? Do blue-green algae or bacteria have free will, or is their […]

A new Sam Harris article on living without free will.

Sam Harris has posted a new article today called “Life Without Free Will“. He starts off: One of the most common objections to my position on free will is that accepting it could have terrible consequences, psychologically or socially. This is a strange rejoinder, analogous to what many religious people allege against atheism: Without a […]