Illuminating, uplifting and lighthearted, THE MYTH OF FREE WILL features witty, brilliant and provocative essays and quotes on free will. The contents are divided into six chapters: 1) But It Seems So Real! 2) The Myth & Causality 3) The Myth & Morality 4) The Myth & the Brain 5) The Myth & Naturalism 6) The Myth & Me. There is a quiz, illustrations and a glossary. Contributors include Thomas W. Clark, Daniel Wegner, Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, William B. Provine, Paul Bloom, Antonio Damasio, Francis Crick, Eric Kandel, Robert Sapolsky, Arnell Dowret, Read Montague, Lee M. Silver, Matt Ridley, Jonah Lehrer, Francis Crick, Ginger Campbell, V.S. Ramachandran, Douglas Hofstadter, Kurt Vonnegut, Tamler Sommers, Joshua Greene, Baruch Spinoza, Mark Twain, and Albert Einstein. Author Susan Blackmore contributes a nice foreword, in which she says we can live without the myth of free will and do better, personally, morally and practically. In all, more than 50 leading thinkers are represented.
The book strives to answer the question, Who is saying we don't have free will and what are their credentials? It's mostly an anthology, definitely not a philosophy text. It was written for a mainstream audience, for people who wonder: Do I have free will? If not, why does it feel like I do? And it was written for people who understand that free will is a myth (the choir) and want to share this understanding with friends who might feel disturbed or intimidated by the subject. Finally, THE MYTH OF FREE WILL presents a fresh, quirky, yet profound treatment of an esoteric topic that's destined to become edgy.
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