Free Will

by Sam Harris

In the face of any real independence from prior events, every thought and action would seem to merit the statement “I don’t know what came over me.”

“If everything is determined, why should I do anything? Why not just sit back and see what happens?” This is pure confusion. To sit back and see what happens is itself a choice that will produce its own consequences. It is also extremely difficult to do: Just try staying in bed all day waiting for something to happen; you will find yourself assailed by the impulse to get up and do something, which will require increasingly heroic efforts to resist.

Am I free to change my mind? Of course not. It can only change me.