Book: Story of Psychology Discussion: William James held a strong belief in the

Question

Book: Story of Psychology

Discussion: William James held a strong belief in the concept of free will. He declared that “the belief that we cannot affect our own behavior produces disastrous results; the belief that we can, produces beneficial results.” In the years following, psychological scientists have produced compelling evidence for and against free will, and thus, free will remains a hotly contested topic to this day. At first thought, for most of us, it seems hard to imagine that we don’t have free will, but there is compelling evidence otherwise.

Debate: Please argue for or against free will using scientific evidence. You may also feel free to talk about other aspects of James’ life and work.

Explanation / Answer

Since “free will.” According to my understanding is the fact that we make choices. Since taking the example of Quantum mechanics measurements are chosen at random from the slate of possibilities based on our choices. Thus no science is possible if we don’t start experimenting with making a choice of the variables to study and defining the effects of our choice. Things will be totally unpredictable and no laws can be developed if we don’t presume things. If Newton did not presume that there is the force that is attracting the apple towards the Earth and the Earth towards the apple, he would not have arrived at the laws of gravitation. Our assumptions in science are the choices of our experimentation due to our free will.

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