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Author: Sam Harris
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451683405
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 96
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Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion. A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion. In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.
Author: Sam Harris
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451683405
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 96
Get Book Here
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion. A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion. In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.
Author: Joaquín M. Fuster
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107434378
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
Joaquín M. Fuster is an eminent cognitive neuroscientist whose research over the last five decades has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the neural structures underlying cognition and behaviour. This book provides his view on the eternal question of whether we have free will. Based on his seminal work on the functions of the prefrontal cortex in decision-making, planning, creativity, working memory, and language, Professor Fuster argues that the liberty or freedom to choose between alternatives is a function of the cerebral cortex, under prefrontal control, in its reciprocal interaction with the environment. Freedom is therefore inseparable from that circular relationship. The Neuroscience of Freedom and Creativity is a fascinating inquiry into the cerebral foundation of our ability to choose between alternative actions and to freely lead creative plans to their goal.
Author: Daniel M. Wegner
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262290553
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 725
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Book Description
A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.
Author: Ahmad Safavy
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781543207064
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 236
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Book Description
REVISED EDITION: 10 Feb, 2018 A brand new theory on the free will question: We believe that Freewill is what separates thinking humanity from instinct-driven animals. For most of history, humans have either taken Freewill for granted or sung its praises. We assume we control our thoughts and that our thoughts control our actions. But what if we're wrong? After all, we may live in a deterministic universe. Since the moment of the Big Bang, matter and molecules have engaged in a complex dance of Cause-and-Effect, and that interaction could have determined the nature of everything-including our thoughts. Such is the argument of Ahmad Safavy, who employs current scientific principles-from the Big Bang to the systematic formation of atoms, molecules, and the living world, to quantum mechanics and chaos theory-to question how molecular action could affect everything including our genetics, our decision-making processes, and our daily lives. In addition to utilizing the well-known scientific terms, theories, and principles, Safavy proposes new concepts such as "Energy Exchange Processes", "Energy-Information Duality Principle", and "Universal Spider Web Interconnectivity Model" in his Freewill-related arguments. While targeting the general readership, the book may be used as a compact but rich source of scientific and philosophical information by the students of these fields. It may be particularly useful to philosophy students with no or limited science background and students of non-scientific disciplines. Skillfully translating complex scientific concepts into accessible, everyday terms, Safavy invites readers to consider the arguments for and against universal Determinism. How does the presence or absence of Freewill affect our lives and our decisions? If there is no Freewill, how would that change our approach to crucial moral and sociological issues? Do we have Freewill? If not, what is occurring when we make a decision and act on it? The answers lie in No-Choice Theory.
Author: David Palmer (Professor)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199860084
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246
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Book Description
This book is a collection of new essays on the libertarian position on free will and related issues that focuses specifically on the views of philosopher Robert Kane. Written by a distinguished group of philosophers, the essays range from various areas of philosophy including metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of mind.
Author: Derk Pereboom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521029961
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Argues that morality, meaning and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible for our actions.
Author: Mark Balaguer
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262266156
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 213
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Book Description
An argument that the problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In this largely antimetaphysical treatment of free will and determinism, Mark Balaguer argues that the philosophical problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In the course of his argument, Balaguer provides a naturalistic defense of the libertarian view of free will. The metaphysical component of the problem of free will, Balaguer argues, essentially boils down to the question of whether humans possess libertarian free will. Furthermore, he argues that, contrary to the traditional wisdom, the libertarian question reduces to a question about indeterminacy—in particular, to a straightforward empirical question about whether certain neural events in our heads are causally undetermined in a certain specific way; in other words, Balaguer argues that the right kind of indeterminacy would bring with it all of the other requirements for libertarian free will. Finally, he argues that because there is no good evidence as to whether or not the relevant neural events are undetermined in the way that's required, the question of whether human beings possess libertarian free will is a wide-open empirical question.
Author: Melissa Holbrook Pierson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393247236
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 328
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Book Description
An intimate, surprising look at man’s best friend and what the leading philosophies of dog training teach us about ourselves. Years back, Melissa Holbrook Pierson brought home a border collie named Mercy, without a clue of how to get her to behave. Stunned after hiring a trainer whose immediate rapport with Mercy seemed magical, Pierson began delving into the techniques of positive reinforcement. She made her way to B. F. Skinner, the behavioral psychologist who started it all, the man who could train a pigeon to dance in minutes and whose research on how behavior is acquired has ramifications for military dolphin trainers, athletes, dancers, and, as he originally conceived, society at large. To learn more, Pierson met with a host of fascinating animal behaviorists, going behind the scenes to witness the relationships between trainers and animals at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and to the in-depth seminars at a Clicker Expo where all the dogs but hers seemed to be learning new tricks. The often startling story of what became of a pathbreaking scientist’s work is interwoven with a more personal tale of how to understand the foreign species with whom we are privileged to live. Pierson draws surprising connections in her exploration of how kindness works to motivate all animals, including the human one.
Author: Wendy Lee Buckingham
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1450049001
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
"Free Will, No Choice" is Wendy Buckingham’s first published work, a memoir which chronicles her childhood, adolescence, and how she came to meet and join The Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. She was to be a faithful follower for half of her adult life before becoming disillusioned by it all after making a pilgrimage to Korea intended to further deepen her faith. The story opens with the recollection of a picture-perfect day with her and her playmates enjoying a carefree life in a wooded bedroom community in the northwest suburbs of Chicago in the mid-1950s. The tragic death of her older sister from leukemia at age 8 creates a tangible disturbance in the family, and as happens all too frequently when such a tragedy strikes a young married couple, her parents divorce not long after. Her mother decides to move back to her hometown of Denver with Wendy and her younger sister Georgia, just as the girls are reaching adolescence. Mother realizes that she cannot survive for long as a single mom with two daughters without an income, and sets her sights on well-to-do bachelors in the Denver social circles. Drugs and alcohol come to be convenient avenues of escape for the author as she is moved in and out of a variety of schools before finally graduating from high school back in Illinois. She has the opportunity to do some traveling with Georgia before the independent-minded Hitchcock sisters seemingly go their separate ways. In 1975, a letter from Georgia from a new age community outside of San Francisco gets Wendy’s attention. Sensing that Georgia may have been lured into a cult of some kind, the author decides to travel to the west coast to see for herself what sister has gotten herself into. Long story short, Georgia’s stay with the Creative Community Project (aka The Unification Church) ends within 3 months. Wendy’s is to last considerably longer. Positive changes in mind, body and spirit are immediately evidenced for our heroine, who begins to experience a most substantial presence of and relationship with God. The first seven years in the movement are spent on MFT (Mobile Fundraising Teams), raising money to support Rev. Moon in his vision of building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (even though Jesus very plainly said that The Kingdom of Heaven is within you...). Having laid the seven year foundation of fundraising to qualify to be matched (engaged) and blessed (married) by Sun Myung Moon, the scene shifts to New York City and the New Yorker Hotel (now the World Mission Center for The Unification Church), where Rev. Moon is preparing to match 1,500 men and women with unshakeable faith in him as the 2nd Coming of Christ. Wendy emerges from the ceremony with her fiancé, Francis Buckingham, and her foot-soldier days are behind her. As family life begins, they find in one another alternative sounding boards for what they really believe and why they are doing what they’re doing. With the arrival of their son in 1991, the demands on their time and the little money they have for themselves become more and more unreasonable and unbearable. Where is the messiah when you really need him? As the storm clouds loom in the distance, hope arrives in the form of a book they discover sitting on a shelf in the home of another church couple. It’s entitled A Course in Miracles. It begins by stating: Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God. The story of the next leg of the journey is now in progress: the power of Faith guided by Wisdom.
Author: Barry Schwartz
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061748994
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.
