Free Will Debate
Free Will Debate
Be it resolved, humans have free will.
Life is full of decisions, big and small. What to eat for breakfast, what to wear to work, who to ask for advice, where to send your kids to school. But are any of these decisions truly our own? A growing movement of psychologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists believe that these decisions may feel like a tossup, but in reality, are predetermined, merely the firing of neural pathways forged over time that lead to predictable conclusions. Despite how we feel, free will is an illusion. Supporters of this deterministic worldview argue that our choices are no more under our own control than our own biology. The myriad decisions we make over the course of our lives emerge from background causes of which we are unaware and over which we exert no conscious control. But detractors of this worldview argue that free will and the modern understanding of our brains is not mutually exclusive. They argue that free will exists on a higher order beyond our physical selves and cannot be reduced to our mere biology. Much of human thought and action cannot be explained at the physical level, but that renders it no less real. Today we ask the question, do we make our choices, or do our choices make us?
You may also like

September 19, 2023
– Watch
Liberalism in Crisis

September 19, 2023
– Listen
Traditional Gender Roles Debate

September 15, 2023
– Listen
Friday Focus – Big Israel / Big Iran & Progressivism

September 12, 2023
– Listen
Munk Dialogue with David Brooks

September 26, 2023
– Listen
Munk Dialogue with Fredrik DeBoer

September 29, 2023
– Listen
Friday Focus – Canada’s Shame & U.S. Shutdown

September 22, 2023
– Listen
Friday Focus – Canada-India Bust-up

October 4, 2023
– Listen
DEI Workplace Training

October 6, 2023
– Listen
Friday Focus – House Rules

October 9, 2023
– Listen
Friday Focus Special Edition – ‘The targets were overwhelmingly civilians’: Janice Gross Stein on the surprise attack on Israel

October 11, 2023
– Listen
Munk Dialogue with Bret Stephens

October 13, 2023
Comments (0)
Locked content
Join to unlock
Join