There’s one further reason why we experience voluntary actions the way we do, a reason that puts even more clear air between volition as perceptual inference and volition as dualistic magic. Experiences of volition are useful for guiding future behaviour, just as much as for guiding current behaviour. As we’ve seen, voluntary behaviour is highly flexible. The competence to control large numbers of degrees of freedom means that if a particular voluntary action turns out badly, then the next time a similar situation arises I might try something different. If on Monday I attempt a shortcut on my
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