David Smith publishes 3rd of his Psychology Today blog post series on the question of 'free will'

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., 吃瓜爆料 associate professor of philosophy, who writes a blog for Psychology Today, posted the third column of a series on the question of "free will" on Aug. 2, 2012.

In this third part of the series, Smith explores the concept of "hard determinism." He writes: "The doctrine of hard determinism has a way of freaking people out. It makes people uncomfortable.  There are a couple of reasons for this. One has to do with the time-honored notion of human autonomy. If hard determinism is true, doesn鈥檛 that mean that we鈥檙e caused to do everything that we do? Doesn鈥檛 it mean that we are nothing more than puppets of the forces of nature? The short answer is, 'No, it doesn鈥檛.'鈥

Smith is the author of Less Than Human:  Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, as well as Why We Lie:  The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind and The Most Dangerous Animal:  Human Nature and the Origins of War.

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