David Smith’s most recent Psychology Today blog post discusses the question of 'free will'

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., UNE associate professor of philosophy, who writes a blog for Psychology Today, posted a column on July 18, 2012 titled “Free Will 101: Part One."

Smith writes:  "Over the last few years, the free will question has also grabbed the attention of psychologists and neuroscientists. There’s been a spate of articles claiming that science has demonstrated that free will is nothing but an illusion, or, conversely, that neurobiology lends support to the claim that we are free, morally responsible agents. Either of these views might turn out to be correct. But in philosophy (as well as in science) it is important to be right for the right reasons, and this is precisely where many of these treatments of the free will problem fall down. To anyone versed in the relevant philosophical literature, these scientific discussions of the free will problem are often achingly naïve." Read the blog.

Smith is the author of Less Than Human:  Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, as well as Why We Lie:  The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind and The Most Dangerous Animal:  Human Nature and the Origins of War.