Free : why science hasn't disproved free will

113 Pages·2014·2.78 MB·English

by  Mele, Alfred R

FREE

FREE
Why Science Hasn’t Disproved Free Will
Alfred R. Mele
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mele, Alfred R., 1951–
Free : why science hasn’t disproved free will / Alfred R. Mele.
pages cm
ISBN 978–0–19–937162–4 (hardback)
1. Free will and determinism. I. Title.
BJ1461.M453 2014
123'.5—dc23
2014006491
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For my biggest fan, my father.

CONTENTS
Preface ix
1. Decisions, Decisions 1
2. Benjamin Libet: If Not Now, When? 8
3. Is Free Will Adrift in New-wave Neuroscience? 26
4. Good Intentions 40
5. Tough Situations 52
6. Free Will and Evidence 77
References 93
Index 97
vii

PREFACE
Some people say that free will is an illusion. This is a book
about scientific experiments that are supposed to prove
those people right. I describe these experiments in ways
everyone can understand, and I explain why they don’t
rule out the existence of free will. In fact, the illusion is
that there is powerful scientific evidence for the nonexis-
tence of free will.
As I write this preface, I’m in my final year as director
of the four-year, $4.4 million Big Questions in Free Will
project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
During the course of the grant, I’ve continued to write for
my normal academic audience, and recently I reached out
to undergraduates in a small book entitled A Dialogue on
Free Will and Science (2014). I decided it was time to try to
reach out to everybody. Hence, this book. For excellent
editorial assistance, I’m grateful to Julian McCaull and
Lucy Randall. For helpful advice about the manuscript,
I’m indebted to Michael McKenna, Mark Mele, and
Manuel Vargas.
This book was made possible through the support of a
grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opin-
ions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily
ix