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Free Will vs Determinism: Are Your Choices Really Yours?
The debate that touches everything from justice to personal identity
If your brain made the decision before you were conscious of it—was it really your choice?
Start here: make a prediction before reading
Determinism holds that every event—including every human thought and decision—is the inevitable result of prior causes. If you knew the exact state of every particle in the universe, you could predict every choice ever made.
Neuroscience adds fuel to the fire: experiments suggest the brain prepares for a decision seconds before a person becomes consciously aware of choosing. This has prompted some scientists to declare free will an illusion.
How you understand free will shapes your views on responsibility, justice, and self-improvement.
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