Sam Harris’ Crusade Against Free Will
Nonfiction
Date Published: March 19, 2022
Publisher: Biochemical Press
It’s the 10th anniversary of Sam Harris’ Free Will, one of the most popular
books of the past decade written on the free will debate. Harris’
well-deserved reputation as an author, intellectual, and social commentator
has afforded Free Will exposure that books on the subject rarely enjoy. The
10th anniversary of its publication makes the timing right for a
no-holds-barred critique of determinism and Free Will’s take on determinist
doctrine. The moral implications of the free will debate have gained renewed
urgency from scientific findings that the belief in determinism leads to
cheating, aggression, and other immoral conduct. Are We Really Biochemical
Robots? delivers an unsparing blow to determinism and its circular premises,
reliance on selective evidence, and moral equivalency.
Topics include:
Why science findings claiming to support determinism do nothing of the
kind.
Why determinism’s number one premise, causation, is conceptually and
scientifically unsound.
Why relativity theory and quantum mechanics laid determinism to rest
decades ago.
Why moral and personal responsibility can’t exist in a causal
universe.
Why determinism renders our criminal justice system useless.
In perhaps its most unique contribution, Biochemical Robots reaches beyond
the confines of Free Will’s discussion to expose the fundamental flaw at the
heart of determinist doctrine – the self-contradictory nature of
determinist truth claims. Determinism receives its final coup de grâce
in Biochemical Robots’ closing pages. The reign of causation is given a
eulogy that’s long overdue.
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EXCERPT
What would having free will require? Free Will maintains we would need to “completely control” everything that determines us. Everything means everything – our genetics, neurophysiology, birth circumstances, personal attributes, cultural identity, etc. Add to these our parents, upbringing, and character. Why would we need to control such a comprehensive array of elements to have free will? The idea that free will would need such extensive controls to operate is far afield of the conventional notion. Is such an absolutist conception of free will justified? Why isn’t free will just what common sense suggests – the limited ability to influence reality, subject to conditions, circumstances, and constraints not of its making?
