Free Will

By: Sam Harris

Narrated by: Sam Harris

Length: 1 hr and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2012 Sam Harris (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"Free will is an illusion so convincing that people simply refuse to believe that we don’t have it. In Free Will, Sam Harris combines neuroscience and psychology to lay this illusion to rest at last. Like all of Harris’s books, this one will not only unsettle you but make you think deeply. Read it: you have no choice." (Jerry A. Coyne, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, and author of Why Evolution Is True)

"In this elegant and provocative book, Sam Harris demonstrates—with great intellectual ferocity and panache—that free will is an inherently flawed and incoherent concept, even in subjective terms. If he is right, the book will radically change the way we view ourselves as human beings." (V. S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, UCSD, and author of The Tell-Tale Brain)

"Brilliant and witty—and never less than incisive— Free Will shows that Sam Harris can say more in 13,000 words than most people do in 100,000." (Oliver Sacks)

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

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.

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!

It will leave you thinking for the rest of your li

the book is incredible short and compact and o think this is consequence of the subject itself. The subject in hand is really complex but incredibly simple and making an argument for it is not that complicated to articulate. I really like this book but it can feel repetitive at time but as I said that's because of the subject itself I just wish that Sam had used more scientific language and try to go a wider instead of deeper if that makes sense.

Fantastic book, fantastic author.

The insight this author has provided in my life has had a profoundly positive impact. I'm quite worried what my life would have been like had I not come across the wealth of knowledge Sam Harris has produced and continues to dedicate himself towards.

Awesome

I've been a fan of Sam's podcast for about a year and only recently delved into his books... damn! This and Lying were both revelatory. Well worth the hour and the few bucks.

excellent!

The author has very eloquently and intelligently illustrated the parodox of Free Will. Thank you!

I understand his point of view.

His arguments are fairly sound, and I mean fair and sound. As I listened I poked holes in the as I see morale concern. He does not take all his arguments is deep as I'd like him too. If we know the bacteria within us and change our chemical processes then we should be managing and altering the amounts of certain bacteria within ourselves. You can do this just by getting out more and traveling to new places and eating their food. You can immerse yourself in a culture and become a little ever so slightly different just by eating the food while in that country. The saying you are what you eat is far more true than you may think.

Life changing

Even when reading this book initially, I believed the concepts but I hadn't fully understood the implications or truly understood the underlying concepts. I feel like Sam Harris does a good job for a short book form, however, I feel in some ways, it could probably be better. It has lead me on a journey to discover these truths on my own. The result of that journey has been an entirely new perspective of my life which I know is absolutely true. This book truly is a gift and I am sure others will have journeys similar to mine.

All that said, the truth is, the concepts in this book are incredibly dense. Don't dismiss them, just try to really understand the meaning.