Free will is the idea that humans can make their own choices and determine their own fates. Is a person’s will free, or are people's lives in fact shaped by powers outside of their control? The ...

A SIMPLE insect can help us understand free will, and the lack of it. When a female digger wasp is ready to lay her eggs, she hunts down a cricket or similar prey, paralyses it with a sting, drags it ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. Edmon de Haro I’m delighted that so many people have felt irresistibly ...

Philip Ball argues that “free will” is not ruled out by physics – because it doesn’t stem from physics in the first place Wrong way If physics can disprove free will, then it must override everything ...

Robert Sapolsky, a 66-year-old Stanford neurobiologist, has a controversial view on the nature of human existence: he doesn’t think “free will” exists. At all. A MacArthur “genius” grant recipient at ...

The release of Determined, a new book by renowned Stanford professor of primate behavior and neuroscience Robert M. Sapolsky, has catapulted him into the middle of an ancient debate: whether humans ...

As you read these words, there are likely dozens of algorithms making predictions about you. It was probably an algorithm that determined that you would be exposed to this article because it predicted ...

From coffee table books and social media to popular science lectures, it seems it has has become increasing fashionable for neuroscientists, philosophers and other commentators to tell anyone that ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. Stephen Cave sparked a ton of reader discussion with his essay “There’s ...

It seems like we have free will. Most of the time, we are the ones who choose what we eat, how we tie our shoelaces and what articles we read on The Conversation. Sapolsky summarises the latest ...

Natalie Jones, PsyD, is a licensed psychotherapist and advisory board member for PS's Condition Center. So why is free will trending? It could just be your standard trend-cycle coincidence, but my ...