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Free will vs sophisticated meat machines

In an essay publsihed by the New York Times, Dennis Overbye wonders whether free will is an illusion. [Link]

“Is it an illusion? That’s the question,” said Michael Silberstein, a science philosopher at Elizabethtown College in Maryland. Another question, he added, is whether talking about this in public will fan the culture wars.

“If people freak at evolution, etc.,” he wrote in an e-mail message, “how much more will they freak if scientists and philosophers tell them they are nothing more than sophisticated meat machines, and is that conclusion now clearly warranted or is it premature?”

jon posted this at 6:08 AM
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