"With a new epilogue"--Back cover.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Turtles all the way down -- 2. The final three minutes of a movie -- 3. Where does intent come from? -- 4. Willing willpower: the myth of grit -- 5. A primer on chaos -- 6. Is your free will chaotic? -- 7. A primer on emergent complexity -- 8. Does your free will just emerge? -- 9. A primer on quantum indeterminacy -- 10. Is your free will random? -- 10.5. Interlude -- 11. Will we run amok? -- 12. The ancient gears within us: how does change happen? -- 13. We really have done this before -- 14. The joy of punishment -- 15. If you die poor -- Epilogue. Things I wish I'd written in the hardcover edition -- Appendix. Neuroscience 101.

The author mounts a devastating scientific and philosophical case against free will--an argument with profound consequences. This book offers a synthesis of what we know about consciousness--the tight weave between reason and emotion and between stimulus and response in the moment and over a life. One by one, the author takes out all the major arguments for free will, cutting a path through the thickets of chaos theory and quantum physics. But as he acknowledges, it's sometimes impossible to uncouple from our zeal to judge people, including ourselves. This book applies this new understanding to some of our most essential questions around punishment, morality, and living well together. Most of all, he argues that while accepting the reality about free will is monumentally difficult, it will make for a much more humane world.--