Free Will

By: Sam Harris

Narrated by: Sam Harris

From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, “brilliant and witty” (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion.

A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion.

In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.

Brilliant

The most articulate, intellectually honest, and socially useful book I've read on the subject of free will.

Shake your World and then perhaps not

Excellent thought provoking and convincing discussion on free will ..read honestly and make up your mind

Freedom Rethought

From what we do know about biology, Sam is spot on. Logistically, this book makes total sense. As a functioning society we need to contemplate and really dive into the bodies nutritional landscape. Sam doesn't propose this topic in the book, but I'd hypothesize that we are making horrible decisions and acting very erratic and illogical due to nutritional deficiencies; that's not freedom!

OK, but outdated - a new ebook is now available

This audiobook is OK, but it's outdated - a new Kindle ebook (which provides newer scientific evidence) is now available (cf. ASIN B0B139XF8F).

Even though this audiobook is enjoyably informative, validation of this audiobook's premise (viz., that so-called "free will" is ILLUSORY & NONEXISTENT) is LIMITED by the limited scope of the scientific evidence which was available to the author in 2012 (when this audiobook was published).

The recently-published Kindle ebook (ASIN B0B139XF8F) provides an overarching overview of the CONSENSUS of RECENT peer-reviewed scientific research in 5 UNIQUE and DISTINCT & UNRELATED but CONVERGING scientific research fields [viz., (A) CONSCIOUSNESS and (B) the UNCONSCIOUS MIND and (C) OVUM FERTILIZATION and (D) the BIOLOGY of MALE-FEMALE SEXUAL ATTRACTION and (E) our HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE].
-- The CONSENSUS of the latter research review CLEARLY and DEFINITIVELY concludes that "free will" is ILLUSORY & NONEXISTENT.

For example,
1. the Human Mind is 100% UNCONSCIOUS & 100% IRRATIONAL, so Human judgment cannot be trusted because of Cognitive Biases & Semantic Framing

2. each Human is merely a self-HALLUCINATED ILLUSION of one’s Self (cf. ASIN B07WQY9GW6)

3. ovum fertilization is NOT a random event but, instead, ovum fertilization is PREDETERMINED by which ONE & ONLY UNIQUE Child1 will be born from the fusion of (i) which ONE & ONLY UNIQUE ovum1 with (ii) which ONE & ONLY UNIQUE sperm1 (which that ONE & ONLY UNIQUE ovum1 PRESELECTS), but only IF the 2 humans who provide ovum1 & sperm1 ever meet

4. the ACTUAL LIVE BIRTH of EACH child is a UNIQUE, PREDETERMINED MIRACLE, especially since the probability of any ONE human having been born was much less than 1 in 10^(2,685,000).

Consequently,
(i) everything any one person does throughout one’s Lifetime has already been PREDETERMINED [especially since physics research has proven that “TIME“ is ILLUSORY (i.e., each Human's so-called "PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE" coexist in our HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE)]
and
(ii) there is NO REAL CHOICE and, therefore, there is NO FREE WILL in ANY aspect of one’s own Life (viz., NO FREE WILL in mate selection, child procreation, career choice/trajectory, political views, religion, etc.).

Will vs the perception of

This is a subject difficult to master since it concerns our consciousness: to reflect about our mind.

However, a number of queries are questions are similar to Stoicism.

Very interesting and thoughtful. A short book for a mysterious subject.