Coyne’s article in USA Today is making the rounds:
“So it is with all of our other choices: not one of them results from a free and conscious decision on our part. There is no freedom of choice, no free will. And those New Year’s resolutions you made? You had no choice about making them, and you’ll have no choice about whether you keep them….The debate about free will, long the purview of philosophers alone, has been given new life by scientists, especially neuroscientists studying how the brain works. And what they’re finding supports the idea that free will is a complete illusion.”
He claims we don’t have free will because the science says we can’t (third person) but gives absolutely no credence to the fact that most of us believe we have free will, which he acknowledges, and that in and of itself is evidence that needs to be dealt with. His nihilism-avoidance recommendations are cold and ineffective at best.
Article here.
