Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Free Will Explained: How Science and Philosophy Converge to Create a Beautiful Illusion
Free Will Explained: How Science and Philosophy Converge to Create a Beautiful Illusion | Dan Barker
4 posts | 2 read | 11 to read
A compelling essay on free will from an internationally recognized authority on atheism, and author ofGod: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction. Do we have free will? And if we don't, why do we feel as if we do? In a godless universe governed by impersonal laws of cause and effect, are you responsible for your actions? Former evangelical minister Dan Barker (God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction) unveils a novel solution to the question that has baffled scientists and philosophers for millennia. He outlines the concept of what he calls "harmonic free will," a two-dimensional perspective that pivots the paradox on its axis to show that there is no single answer--both sides are right. Free will is a useful illusion: not a scientific, but a social truth.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
speljamr
post image
Pickpick

This was a great read using music metaphors to explain why freewill is an illusion created by the mind, but one that we need to be fully human.

79 likes5 stack adds
review
BestDogDad
post image
Pickpick

This book is my first foray in to the deterministic / free will debate and I think it was a good introduction. Dan makes a clear and uncomplicated argument for his “harmonic free will” theory by using analogies and anecdotes. This short book was a joy to read and it never dragged. I own two of his other books and am looking forward to reading them.

Aimeesue Sounds interesting! And very meta. 6y
BestDogDad @Aimeesue it was a bit meta! From what I understand not as deep as the books by Sam Harris or Daniel Dennett, though. 6y
7 likes1 stack add2 comments
quote
BestDogDad
post image

This book is interesting. It is making me think in a different way about choices people make. I have not read much about the free will debate. And I like Dan‘s stories, like this one.

blurb
speljamr
post image

Just got this in the mail today! This is a subject that absolutely fascinates me.

#philosophy #science

98 likes4 stack adds