Discuss Free Will (John Searle, Sam Harris) with Not School

In light of the most recent PEL episode, we folks in PEL's Not School will be holding a discussion on free will this month through next month. Some of the conversation will be continuous with and complementary to the PEL guys' discussion as well as perhaps raise other issues.

For the remainder of this month, we'll be reading John Searle's essay "Freedom as a Problem in Neurobiology" (PDF available here), which claims that free will and determinism are incompatible, and so we have to come to terms with accepting one or the other.

Next month, we plan to read Sam Harris's book Free Will, which argues that free will is an illusion and we don't need it to account for or judge people on their behavior.

If you're interested in taking part in the discussion, PEL Citizens can access the Free Will (May '14) group. If you're not yet a Citizen, sign up!

-Billie Pritchett