346. Kennon Sheldon What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About Free Will, Determinism, and Self-Determinism
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It\\u2019s become fashionable to argue that free will is a fiction: that we humans are in the thrall of animal urges and unconscious biases and only think that we are choosing freely. In Freely Determined, research psychologist Kennon\\u202fSheldon\\u202fargues that this perception is not only wrong but also dangerous.
Shermer and Sheldon discuss: definitions of free will, determinism, compatibilism, libertarian free will \\u2022 dualism \\u2022 reductionism, materialism, predetermination, and epiphenomenalism \\u2022 Christian List\\u2019s three capacities for free will\\xa0\\u2022\\xa0AI, Star Trek\\u2019s Data, sentience and consciousness, ChatGPT, GPT-4 \\u2022 how what people believe about free will and determinism influences their behaviors \\u2022\\xa0the case for hard determinism \\u2022 brain injuries, tumors, addictions, and other \\u201cdeterminers\\u201d of behavior \\u2022\\xa0emergence \\u2022 symbolic self \\u2022 System 1 vs. System 2 thinking \\u2022\\xa0 Experiencing Self vs. Remembered Self \\u2022\\xa0 subjective well-being and happiness.
Kennon M. Sheldon is professor of psychology at the University of Missouri. He is one of the founding researchers of positive psychology, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a recipient of the Templeton Foundation Positive Psychology Prize. He lives in Columbia, Missouri. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and scholarly books, including Stability of Happiness: Theories and Evidence on Whether Happiness Can Change; Designing the Future of Positive Psychology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward; Current Directions in Psychological Science; and Self-Determination Theory in the Clinic. His new book integrates all this research into a popular trade book Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live.
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