Thomas Pink on Free Will

Philosophy Bites

Nigel Warburton

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2008

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

We often blame people for what they do or fail to do. But that implies that they were free to choose whether or not to act in the way they did. At the same time science seems to reveal prior causes of all our actions. There seems little or no room for free will. In this episode of Philosophy Bites Thomas Pink, author of Free Will: A Very Short Introduction, discusses the Free Will Problem and outlines his own approach to it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.
0:07.0	Philosophy bites is available at www
0:09.5	philosophy bites.com.
0:11.0	At one level the claim that humans have free will seems bizarre. If the physical
0:16.5	world operates according to iron laws which determine everything that happens, mustn't
0:21.1	humans be governed by the same laws.
0:23.0	On the other hand, we all think we're free.
0:26.0	We take it for granted that it's up to us to choose our actions.
0:30.0	The issue of free will is one of the most complex in philosophy.
0:34.0	Some argue that if our actions are causally predetermined, we can't be free.
0:39.0	Such people are caught incompativists.
0:42.0	Others,
0:43.3	say even if our actions are caused
0:45.8	and determined in advance, we can still be free.
0:49.2	So which side is right and how can we tell?
0:51.7	Thomas Pink, a leading expert on free will, has his own solution.
0:56.0	Tom Pink, welcome to Philosophy Bites.
0:59.0	Thank you for having me.
1:01.0	Now the problem we're going to focus on today is free will. That's the traditional
1:04.8	philosophical problem that's engaged thinkers of all ages. But can we just get clear
1:09.2	what the problem is? The problem begins when we consider something that's very central to our moral or ethical life.
1:17.0	And that's blame. We blame ourselves and other people for what they do or what they fail to do. Think about what
	...

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