Article Excerpt:
Philosophers spend a lot of time debating the existence of “free will” — which may seem odd because it is, on its face, such a common thing. We all seem to experience free will on a daily basis. This morning, for instance, you had a choice: get out of bed or roll over and vegetate a bit longer. We know what it feels like to have free will, yet how we understand that feeling is a bit more complicated.
In 2021, Big Think interviewed some of the brightest thinkers working on the planet today and asked them what free will is and do we have it. As you can imagine, their answers were as fascinating as they were diverse. But just because we cannot agree on something doesn’t mean that the conversation is pointless. Here, we’ve revisited and summarized those interviews. You can think of this as a kind of sample board before you dive deeper into the topic of free will.