Free Will
Daniel B. Miller
December 8, 2013
Dan Miller will discuss the conundrum of free will versus determinism, with a focus on opposing viewpoints put forward by two of our country’s most distinguished freethinkers, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris.
In Elbow Room and Freedom Evolves, Dennett (author of Breaking The Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon) outlines his vision of “the kind of free will worth having,” and puts forward a compelling case that we do indeed possess this specific kind of freedom.
In “Free Will”, Sam Harris presents a contrasting view, arguing that free will is fundamentally an illusion. He makes his case in a spirit similar to his argument against religion in his most famous work, The End Of Faith.
So — is free will just another ghostly goblin of magical thinking? Or is it something we can define and observe critically, and put on a sound, logical, scientific basis? This question may be of more than rhetorical value to academics and armchair philosophers. The notion of free will, and the contrary opinion that it is but a phantom illusion, have both been used (and continue to be used today) to make fundamental arguments about ethics, personal responsibility, social justice and many important issues. How we define and explain (or explain away) free will can have a profound effect on our world view, politics, and the way we perceive and value the world around us.
Dan Miller of Palo Alto has been part of our Humanist Community for several years. He has been a musician, computer programmer, and entrepreneur. More on his background, including published papers and related work, can be found at http://www.squiggle.com/danbmil/