All my books and articles are listed in Publications.
People often ask me what to read on a particular subject. Here are some suggestions.
I don’t believe that our will is “free” but I do believe it is possible to give up the illusion that it is. We can still live a moral and fulfilling life without believing in free will.
Watch
Closer to Truth Podcast – What is Free Will? (Coming soon)
Free will – can we live without the illusion? Lecture to Freethought Arizona 27 April 2014
Lecture ‘Living without free will’;
British Humanist Association Annual Conference 2013
Mind Byte – one minute on free will
‘Did I get here of my own free will?’ Science and Cocktails, Copenhagen, 19 March 2013 video
and also an interview about free will
Listen
Mind Byte – just one minute on free will 2014
Free Thinking Festival, in Liverpool. Listen to “The Myth of Free Will“, broadcast on BBC Radio 3, on 2 Nov 2008
“Free will and why I don’t believe in it”. Podcast for G’Day World 22 May 2008
Read
Blackmore, S. (2013) Living without free will. In Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Ed G. Caruso, Lexington Books, 161-175
Blackmore, S.J. (2007) In The Myth of Free Will, Ed. Cris Evatt, Cafe Essays, Princeville, HI, Foreword (ix-xiv) and Living Happily and Morally (49-51)
Blackmore, S.J. (2005) It is possible to live happily and morally without believing in free will. In What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today’s Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty. Ed. John Brockman, Free Press, 41-2
Reprinted in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Ed. D. Eggers Houghton Mifflin 2006 p 14-15.
There is a chapter in my book Zen and the Art of Consciousness, called What am I doing?
There is also a large section in my textbook Consciousness: An Introduction devoted to questions of free will and agency. Indeed I discuss free will to some extent in most of my books, and I ask all the conversationalists in Conversations on Consciousness the question “Do you have free will?”. Their responses are very telling.