The Case for Free Will

James Gleick · 18 Jan 2024

The piece opens with

There is no clear line between events in the brain and the conscious self, so it is right to say that we make choices.

Their wordsBut where is the line that separates events in my brain from the conscious witness? Let’s say instead: We make choices. We make decisions.

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
There is no clear line between events in the brain and the conscious self, so it is right to say that we make choices.

Their wordsBut where is the line that separates events in my brain from the conscious witness? Let’s say instead: We make choices. We make decisions.
Our reading
Agency, which comes from acting in the world and living with the consequences, is what distinguishes people from machines.

Their wordsAgency is what distinguishes us from machines. For biological creatures, reason and purpose come from acting in the world and experiencing the consequences.

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