In a recent Wall Street Journal Raymond Tallis reviews two books, Who’s in Charge? by Gazzaniga and Incomplete Nature by Deacon. I haven’t read the books so I won’t comment on them, but the review is frankly embarrassing, another fear-of-science knee-jerk of the kind we all hoped had been left behind in the previous century but unfortunately still [...]
It’s been a fun week to be a free-will-is-a-myth nerd.
Suddenly everyone’s weighing in on determinism. Massimo, Sean, Jerry, and now PZ.
Here’s the short summary: Massimo made some noise, Sean and Jerry chimed in, PZ followed up just to be part of the fun.*
As I mentioned previously, often [...]
I’ve gotten behind on my promise to comment on any new “free will” activity. There have been several interesting offerings of late, which I will post about soon.
First, my excuse: I’m learning.
In some recent draft posts I realized I was expressing extremely vehement opinions about things I don’t actually know much about. Not [...]
As a layperson, I take expertise seriously. When someone more steeped in science or philosophy than myself says something that is just plain wrong, I take a deep breath, and remember Bogo’s Rule:
Bogo’s Rule: if the majority of experts in a field agree on something you know to be untrue, the far most likely [...]
Yes, #ManCardRevoked is trending on twitter. Yippee.
I took a look while eating my lunch. Here’s what I found.
First of all, I’m coming at it from the angle best summarized by this tweet:
You don’t draw your self-worth from an adherence to arbitrary rules of living defined by advertisers and television shows? #ManCardRevoked
[...]
Blaming your parents for things you don’t like about your life, especially when you’re a teenager, is a time-honored tedious tradition. With recent advances in our understanding of epigenetics, now the creative blamer can (maybe) include their grandparents and more in the game.
And don’t forget your culture. If your dream of being a [...]
Massimo Pigliucci, who moderated the panel I went to last week, has posted his own recap of the event, and his own feelings about the topic.
If you follow this blog, you will notice that Massimo and I do not agree on various points. I will continue to voice my opinion—dat’s what da [...]
Björn Brembs really really wants to believe in contra-causal free will. So much so that he sees those of us who don’t as being akin to deluded theists. At least I think that’s what he’s implying with his post title What Does Determinism Have In Common With Gods, The Flying Spaghetti Monster And Pink, [...]
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