Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will
⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️️
Premature Review (only made it 30% of the way through)
This was a really good book detailing the ways we trick ourselves into thinking that we have agency over matters we actually don’t as well as all the genetic and environmental factors in the short and long term as well as the most recent bodies of research, vivid experiments, and more. The author is a good writer. I’m only making this writing prematurely because I became slightly disinterested in the topic while reading — something I don’t believe was the author’s fault. My main complaint — which may be resolved later in the book — is the more subtle point that if we have absolutely no free will, then we don’t really “decide” to act any differently given this information and we don’t really “choose” to not punish people for their deterministic crimes. I think the content in this book might be better geared towards “we have less agency than we think we do” and thus “how can we skew our biology and environment such that the most important decisions aren’t made by ‘force of will’ but rather an accumulation of smaller decisions over time”. I think this book falters on the philosophical grounding a bit (making claims that are perhaps a bit too strong) but is strong in the scientific and experimental grounding.
Note: listened to as an audio book, uncertain if any quality was lost in consuming it in this format.