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 willâand 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, moralityâas well as feelings of remorse or personal achievementâwithout 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.
shubz
22/04/2022
Okey I love sam and he is one of the smartest but in this book he misses lots of vital points. such as the effect of attention (conscious attention) has on brain structure. In all through out he present thesis based on how neurons create every bit of thought and ultimately us thus there is no point of free will. simultaneously forgetting all those neurons are a system and accect eachother and conscious attention is part of that system which will determine future choices. so we are not just mere product of chance but also product of our own past attentions. brain presents us multitude of choices (based on our privious habits and attentions and reward system) however conscious beings can choose (mechanism of brain that's made of multiple system) which choice we choose to pay attention to and thus amplifly that choice, leading to changes in our unconscious thought process itself. you have to be really smart to be this wrong tho. I hope Sam will think about this more and come up with better theory.
Christopher
14/09/2021
Enjoyable and thought provoking