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Free Will Explained
- How Science and Philosophy Converge to Create a Beautiful Illusion
- Narrated by: Dan Barker
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
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Free Will Explained
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Publisher's summary
This audiobook features a compelling essay on free will from an internationally recognized authority on atheism and author of God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction.
Do we have free will? And if we don’t, why do we feel as if we do? In a godless universe governed by impersonal laws of cause and effect, are you responsible for your actions? Former evangelical minister Dan Barker and author of God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction unveils a novel solution to the question that has baffled scientists and philosophers for millennia. He outlines the concept of what he calls “harmonic free will", a two-dimensional perspective that pivots the paradox on its axis to show that there is no single answer - both sides are right. Free will is a useful illusion - not a scientific, but a social truth.
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-
Attacking straw men
- By Henrik on 08-06-11
By: William Arntz, and others
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The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,091
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,719
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,690
Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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5 out of 5 stars
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ABSOLUTE MUST READ!
- By serine on 05-12-16
By: Sean Carroll
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On Quality
- An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
- By: Robert M. Pirsig, Wendy K. Pirsig
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Abby Craden
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
More than a decade before the release of the book that would make him famous, Robert M. Pirsig had already caught hold of the central theme that would animate Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “Quality,” a concept loosely likened to “excellence,” “rightness,” or “fitness” that Pirsig saw as kindred to the Buddhist ideas of “dharma” or the “Tao.” As he later wrote in Zen, “Quality is the Buddha.”
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting trip inside an obsessed mind.
- By Tom on 05-03-22
By: Robert M. Pirsig, and others
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Where the Conflict Really Lies
- Science, Religion, & Naturalism
- By: Alvin Plantinga
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 245
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 214
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 214
This audiobook is a long-awaited major statement by a pre-eminent analytic philosopher, Alvin Plantinga, on one of our biggest debates - the compatibility of science and religion. The last twenty years has seen a cottage industry of books on this divide, but with little consensus emerging. Plantinga, as a top philosopher but also a proponent of the rationality of religious belief, has a unique contribution to make. His theme in this short book is that the conflict between science and theistic religion is actually superficial, and that at a deeper level they are in concord.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The reader makes or breaks an audiobook.
- By Alec on 02-16-15
By: Alvin Plantinga
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A Beginner’s Guide to Reality
- Exploring Our Everyday Adventures in Wonderland
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 102
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 101
A unique fusion of philosophy and metaphysics set against the backdrop of contemporary culture. Have you ever wondered if the world is really there when you're not looking? We tend to take the reality of our world very much for granted. This book will lead you down the rabbit hole in search of something we can point to, hang our hats on, and say this is real.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A real great listen on the nature of reality
- By Patrick Mabry, Jr. on 07-30-14
By: Jim Baggott
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Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Jeff Crawford
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 419
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 356
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Story4 out of 5 stars 350
Over a storied career, Daniel C. Dennett has engaged questions about science and the workings of the mind. His answers have combined rigorous argument with strong empirical grounding. And a lot of fun. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking offers seventy-seven of Dennett’s most successful “imagination-extenders and focus-holders” meant to guide you through some of life’s most treacherous subject matter: evolution, meaning, mind, and free will.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Loved it, but some philosophy background needed.
- By LongerILiveLessIKnow on 11-14-13
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Conversations That Matter: Insights & Distinctions - Landmark Essays, Volume 2
- By: Steve Zaffron, Laurel Scheaf, Mark Spirtos, and others
- Narrated by: Gale LeGassick, Steve Zaffron, Laurel Scheaf, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 101
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Landmark Essays, Volume 2 continues a wonderful journey to the heart of the matter of our lives, to what matters most. It points out what's possible if we step outside of what we know, and recognize and embrace our capacity to bring forth an entirely new possibility for living—not because it is better, but simply because that is what human beings can do.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A part of this was worth buying
- By goyo on 12-14-11
By: Steve Zaffron, and others
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The Devil's Delusion
- Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions
- By: David Berlinski
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 649
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 557
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 558
Militant atheism is on the rise. In recent years, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have produced a steady stream of best-selling books denigrating religious belief. These authors are merely the leading edge of a larger movement that includes much of the scientific community. In response, mathematician David Berlinski, himself a secular Jew, delivers a biting defense of religious thought.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Riddled With Problems
- By Ben on 11-01-13
By: David Berlinski
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There Is a God
- How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
- By: Antony Flew, Roy Abraham Varghese - contributor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
In There Is a God, one of the world's preeminent atheists discloses how his commitment to "follow the argument wherever it leads" led him to a belief in God as Creator. This is a compelling and refreshingly open-minded argument that will forever change the atheism debate.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By Rebekah Hull on 08-03-21
By: Antony Flew, and others
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The Experience of God
- Being, Consciousness, Bliss
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 314
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 272
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 266
Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion "God" frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word "God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The clearest thinking I have heard in ages.
- By Carlos Miranda on 06-17-15
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Philosophy of Mind: Bolinda Beginner Guides
- By: Edward Feser
- Narrated by: Andrea Powell
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
In this lively and entertaining introduction to the philosophy of mind, Edward Feser explores the questions central to the discipline, and relates them not only to the human brain and its capacity for thought, but also to the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence. This in-depth primer is an account of all the most important and significant attempts that have been made to answer the riddles of consciousness and thought.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Author is a Christian apologist, and it shows
- By David Penn on 08-30-15
By: Edward Feser
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Psychotherapy East and West
- By: Alan Watts
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Alan Watts examines the problem of humans in a seemingly hostile universe in ways that question the social norms and illusions that bind and constrict modern humans. Marking a groundbreaking synthesis, Watts asserts that the powerful insights of Freud and Jung, which had, indeed, brought psychiatry close to the edge of liberation, could, if melded with the hitherto secret wisdom of the Eastern traditions, free people from their battles with the self.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not what I have come to expect from Alan Watts works
- By Shiva Latchmipersad on 03-22-19
By: Alan Watts
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The Flip
- Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge
- By: Jeffrey J. Kripal
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
A “flip,” writes Jeffrey J. Kripal, is “a reversal of perspective,” “a new real,” often born of an extreme, life-changing experience. The Flip is Kripal’s ambitious, visionary program for unifying the sciences and the humanities to expand our minds, open our hearts, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the culture wars.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting subject, terrible narrator
- By Lesley on 11-16-22
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Biocentrism
- How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to the True Nature of the Universe
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,041
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 837
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 825
The whole of Western natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change, forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory. At the same time, these findings have increased our doubt and uncertainty about traditional physical explanations of the universe's genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Copenhagen Interpretation Resurrected
- By S. Kozlowski on 12-14-09
By: Robert Lanza, and others
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The Soul of the World
- By: Roger Scruton
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
In The Soul of the World, renowned philosopher Roger Scruton defends the experience of the sacred against today’s fashionable forms of atheism. He argues that our personal relationships, moral intuitions, and aesthetic judgments hint at a transcendent dimension that cannot be understood through the lens of science alone. To be fully alive - and to understand what we are - is to acknowledge the reality of sacred things.
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4 out of 5 stars
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"Against Reductionism"
- By Edmund Schilvold on 10-08-15
By: Roger Scruton
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The Life of the Mind
- By: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Considered by many to be Hannah Arendt's greatest work, published as she neared the end of her life, The Life of the Mind investigates thought itself, as it exists in contemplative life. In a shift from her previous writings, most of which focus on the world outside the mind, this work was planned as three volumes that would explore the activities of the mind considered by Arendt to be fundamental. What emerged is a rich, challenging analysis of human mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging.
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2 out of 5 stars
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English only please
- By angela cozea on 11-20-19
By: Hannah Arendt
What listeners say about Free Will Explained
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 04-25-22
Some good arguments…
The book had some good but it seems this book is to promote his music. Not nearly through enough for me.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous Ed
- 02-09-24
Awful. it's awful and confusing
Dan Barker is way better than this. He could've been clear and instead he seems to add needless distractions to the subject at hand. We know free will is a gigantic myth. In this book he pretends the illusion of free will is okay; it's not. Free will doesn't make sense subjectively or objectively.
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