Sam Harris Free Will Analysis

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In the book Free Will by Sam Harris he explains what he believes free will is actually compared to what others state it is. He states that free will is just an illusion and no one had any control of the kind of life they would be born into which means no one could control the person they would turn out to be due to preceding factors. Eddy Nahmias goes on to explain that Harris theory about free will is completely wrong and that people do not need the impossible to achieve free will. The theory behind free will can be theorized different ways. In Sam Harris’s book Free Will he argues his theory of what he believes free will is in that free will is impossible to achieve and our minds decide what are actions are going to be before we even know what we are going to do. In the book he states “This morning, it was coffee(two). Why not tea? I am in on position to know. I wanted coffee more than I wanted tea today, and I was free to have what I wanted. Did I consciously choose coffee over tea? No. The choice was made …show more content…

He states that if you want something like food and you have to decide between two different items your brain chooses the item before you know which one you want. Harris also explains on how criminals should be looked at differently due to they do not have free will and instead are just performing actions due to prior events. Nahmias explains in his article everything that is wrong with Harris’s book in that free will is possible and is backed up by evidence that has been performed in experiments. He explains that Harris’s explain of free will just can not be said and has to be backed by supporting evidence. Nahmias also explains that science is in the early stages of free will and as more research is done to better understand the theory of free

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