Before we start, I just want to ask Sam one question;
What is the consensus, do you think, in the scientific community about your argument (against free will)?
I mean, you mentioned that there are schools of thought - people like Daniel Dennett - who have a different view...
How close do you think we are to some kind of universal declaration of the illusory nature of free will?
Well, the state of affairs is, really, that most people just don't want to think about it.
Most people's intuitions are powerfully shaped by the illusion - the sense - that they have the freedom to consciously author their thoughts and actions.
So, people feel like there is a compelling, subjective mystery. Noone has been able to give an argument about how it could map onto physical reality, but
people feel that the experience is so compelling that there's just no reason to worry about it. This is the state in which we need to live.
Then there are people like Dan, who, in my view, essentially change the subject.
The disagreement between Dan and myself is essentially this: It's like we're living in a world where most people believe in Atlantis.
And they believe in the underwater kingdom, and they read Plato closely trying to figure out where it was and
I want to say "Atlantis doesn't exist. It didn't exist. People are confused about Atlantis." Dan wants to say
that Atlantis is really Sicily. And he'll give a whole argument about why Sicily answers to many of the claims people are making about Atlantis. And I wanna say
"No, but they're still talking about being underwater and Sicily doesn't do that."
And he says "Well, Sicily is a great place and there's reasons to visit and let's talk about Sicily."
And when he and I argue about this, he begins to respond to me as though I'm saying "Sicily doesn't exist".
There's a fair amount of talking past one another in these kinds of debates. Of course Sicily exists,
but the people who are talking about an underwater kingdom are, at the very least, confused. And that's the situation we're in with free will.
