Free Will

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More About This Book

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews
In a brilliant and concise book, the co-founder of Project Reason argues that free will is an illusion. Harris (The Moral Landscape, 2010, etc.) contends that while most of us feel like we have free will, everything that we seem to choose to do is the result of a chain of causes over which we have no ultimate control--synapses, neural chemistry and genetic predispositions, as well as past events and our environment. Harris, who has a background in neuroscience, relies on that discipline and personal introspection. The neuroscience is impressive. In lab experiments in which subjects were asked to make decisions as regions of their brains were monitored, scientists could see that a decision had been made 7 to 10 seconds before the subject was consciously aware of it. The introspection argument is equally powerful, and Harris points out that much of our life is based on luck and that any of us could have been dealt a very different hand. He argues that accepting that free will is an illusion will help us to create a more ethical society. Currently, our justice system presumes free will, punishing under the assumption that given the same circumstances, an individual could have chosen differently. Exceptions are made for insanity, brain tumors, etc., all of which presume that the individual's free will has been compromised. However, if we assume that free will is illusory--i.e., that criminals are acting outside of their own volition--the question becomes how to deal with offenders and how to protect society. Harris also asks what this conception means for an individual's sense of self. Short enough to be read in a single sitting and provocative enough to arouse outrage and rebuttals.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781451683400
  • Publisher: Free Press
  • Publication date: 3/6/2012
  • Pages: 96
  • Sales rank: 41,105
  • Product dimensions: 5.62 (w) x 8.52 (h) x 0.30 (d)

Meet the Author

Sam Harris is the author of the bestselling books The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, and Lying. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing has been published in over fifteen languages. Dr. Harris and his work have been discussed in The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Time, and many other publications. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere. Dr. Harris is cofounder and CEO of Project Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA. Please visit his website at www.samharris.org.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 21 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(10)

4 Star

(4)

3 Star

(3)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(3)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 21 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 24, 2012

    Will not purchase

    Sample consisted of review • was not what I was expecting • A good indication this book is not a good purchase • Oh by the way, I am doing this on my own free will *

    2 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 7, 2012

    I am writing this review of my own free will

    I am writing this review of my own free will

    1 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 25, 2012

    A wonderful book that advances the counter-intuitive idea that f

    A wonderful book that advances the counter-intuitive idea that free will is an illusion. This book will garner some negative opinions because it contradicts humanity's common sense view that each person is a completely free agent. And nowhere on Earth is this view held more sacred than in the United States with its history of rugged individualism and personal responsibility. This makes Sam Harris' *Free Will* all the more important.

    At less than 100 pages it seems a bit silly to refer to *Free Will* as an enormously important read, but it wouldn't be silly in the slightest to say so. *Free Will* explains why we think we have free will and why that conception of our agency is wrong. I can think of nothing more central to the way we live our lives than this mistaken belief. Fortunately, changing our understanding of free will wouldn't change the way we live our lives except in important subtle ways, and Harris explains this in his book as well.

    I would also recommended reading Malcolm Gladwell's *Outliers*, which brings Harris' argument to life with deftly told stories that amuse as much as they inform.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 19, 2012

    Rather Disappointing

    This long essay would have benefitted greatly has Harris actually defined the common sense notion of free will that he was trying to take apart. Instead he seemed to be continually beating the same straw dog with the same stick.

    I also find his argument, though coherent, unconvincing and inadequate. This is disappointing considering that the "common sense" and publically held notions of free will clearly need to be abandoned.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 8, 2012

    Know This Book

    Definitely worth reading and understanding, this short book must be seriously considered in the arguments for and against free will. The book's main failure is that it assumes cause-and-effect exists, despite Hume's devastating critique of determinism--a fact philosopher Harris must be aware of, but nonetheless ignores.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 16, 2012

    Excellent Book

    Harris says more in 40 pages than most can hope to accomplish in 200. Like it or not Harris presents a strong agument that is difficult to answer sufficiently. At the very minimum, agree with the conclusion or not (and most that don't will do so based on an emotional response rather than from a valid counter argument), this is food for thought that needs to be digested prior to having any discussion on free will, and at 40 pages there is no excuse to ignore it.

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  • Posted March 5, 2012

    Excellent short examination of the topic of free will and how it

    Excellent short examination of the topic of free will and how it is an illusion. If this is true as Harris argues then this will certainly give new meaning to what it means to be born lucky. Not only that but it gives an interesting perspective of those who commit hideous crimes which boils down to not hating them, but certainly prosecuting and incarcerating them since they should be removed from hurting anybody else. I suppose viewed in this light can probably bring quicker healing to those victimized families knowing that those who have hurt us or our families really had no free will on their own but we just born unlucky.

    The whole philosophy Sam is advocating can be boiled down to "You can do what you will, but you can't will what you want". He also provides a rebuttal toward compatibilists like Daniel Dennett.

    Makes you look at things differently and gives you a new appreciation to life.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    Posted March 6, 2012

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