Freedom Evolves
by Daniel C. Dennett
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Book Summary Information
Author: Daniel C. DennettEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-01-27
ISBN: 0142003840
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Freedom Evolves
Book Review: Free will has price tag
Summary: 5 Stars
If reality is deterministic, then can anyone seriously believe in free will.
In giving an emphatic "yes" Dan Dennett posits a philosophy which attempts to show that -- properly understood -- determinism does indeed reconcile itself with the notion of free will (ostensibly something non deterministic).
In laying out his thesis, Dennett draws from a variety of sources however, amazingly enough, not choas theory.
This isn't surprising because in his earlier Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Dennett confessed that he didn't understand physics.
Regrettably, this lack of knowledge has denied him an important additional method by which to reconcile the two phenomenon he purports to discuss. Though certainly not a panacea, choas theory does posit that in sufficiently choatic systems, periodic patches of order emerge.
The significance of this view is obvious when one is discussing a field so broad a free will.
When properly viewed it emerges that free will isn't free.
Where Dennett took the example of baseball player responding to a pitch, let us take the example of you saying hello to a friend. While it's true that your friend may respond by singing a song or doing a dance, the smart money is on the idea that you will get some type of greeting in response to your greeting. In other words, free will isn't free but rather yields responses that lie within a fairly predictable horizon of responses.
Another good case in point is an individual choosing a mate. Research by Dr. Helen Fisher (see her Why we love) says that our romantic choices will ultimately combine two features: 1) a common economic, religious, social background with 2) those physical traits we deem desireable (themselves predictable as pointed out in the Nancy Etcoff book Survival of the Prettiest by means symmetry, youth, apparent reproductive fecundity and the like).
Still another good case in point is the individual in choosing a religion. Typically, children follow the faith of their parents.
True, in each of these situations, it is predictable that a certain percentage of random choices will occur outside the predicted outcomes but a fair analysis seems to suggest that free will generally expresses itself in the form of an individual doing what -- by dint of genetic proclivity or experiential background -- they were in essence programmed to do.
That said, Dennett's point that more learning and ability to learn widens the options is well taken. However, the Tao Te Ching's advice to "not let your wheels stray from old ruts" becomes not so much advice as a fair predicter of human behavior.
Summary of Freedom Evolves
Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers ?yes!? Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments?drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy?that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally. In Freedom Evolves, Dennett seeks to place ethics on the foundation it deserves: a realistic, naturalistic, potentially unified vision of our place in nature.Evolution Books
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