Is our subjective experience of Free Will, supported by the experimental evidence? If not, how do we take moral responsibility for our actions? Why do meditators, who’re used to watching their thoughts arise and pass without identifying with them, find this data easier to integrate?

In this episode, we have the tough job of evaluating the experimental evidence for the existence of Free Will. The debate has raged for centuries in Philosophy, but now with advances in neuroscience and psychology experiments, we have some actual physical evidence to examine, and its implications to reflect on. We’re going to discuss how most of those who accept this evidence have chosen to carry on as if it they still have Free Will, which sounds contradictory. Do the implications for personal moral responsibility require us to do that? We’re also going to get into meditation and Zen, as our guest today and another famous advocate of the illusion of free will, Sam Harris, are long term practitioners. It seems those who use some kind of mindfulness meditation, and hence are used to watching the way thoughts arise and pass without identifying with them, are less troubled by the idea that they may not have free will. What does all this mean for the reality of a ‘self’?

So who better to explain this mind boggling question than, our first returning guest, psychologist, author and visiting Professor at Plymouth University, Susan Blackmore. Best known for her books The Meme Machine, Consciousness: An Introduction, and Seeing Myself, Sue’s work spans across hundreds of publications in over 20 different languages, making huge contributions in the fields of psychology, memetics, religion, philosophy of mind, supernatural experience, and many other areas.

What we discuss (full show notes on the website)

00:00 Intro

04:24 Previous Interview with Susan - Episode #1 on The Hard Problem of Consciousness

08:30 Experimental evidence refuting Free Will

14:30 Daniel Wegner - Thought suppression experiments

19:30 Who is making the decision if not our consciousness?

29:40 Wegner, ‘I let the decision make itself’ = Zen: Let the universe or practice do it

40:00 Meditation: frustration, Sam Harris and letting go of free will

50:00 Buddha’s ‘dependent origination’ and science’s causation

References:

Susan Blackmore - ‘Living without Free Will’

Benjamin Libet - Testing readiness potential against the time of choice

Daniel Wegner - Thought suppression experiments

Susan Blackmore - ‘Conversations on Consciousness’

Susan Blackmore - ‘Zen and the art of consciousness’