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How Evolution Gave Us Free Will
by Kevin J. Mitchell
An evolutionary case for the existence of free will
Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency—or free will—is an illusion. In Free Agents, leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence to the contrary, arguing that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose.
Traversing billions of years of evolution, Mitchell tells the remarkable story of how living beings capable of choice arose from lifeless matter. He explains how the emergence of nervous systems provided a means to learn about the world, granting sentient animals the capacity to model, predict, and simulate. Mitchell reveals how these faculties reached their peak in humans with our abilities to imagine and to be introspective, to reason in the moment, and to shape our possible futures through the exercise of our individual agency. Mitchell's argument has important implications—for how we understand decision making, for how our individual agency can be enhanced or infringed, for how we think about collective agency in the face of global crises, and for how we consider the limitations and future of artificial intelligence.
An astonishing journey of discovery, Free Agents offers a new framework for understanding how, across a billion years of Earth history, life evolved the power to choose, and why it matters.
"Mitchell's compelling and absorbing book acts both as a synthesizing primer about evolution and a powerful argument for free will. Its importance and quality are undeniable. A bold, brilliant must-read that should reach a large audience." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Provocative." ―Publishers Weekly
"Does free will exist or is it an illusion? This captivating book explores the science behind the existence of free will. Writing elegantly about the complexities of this area of research, Mitchell provides a deeper understanding of the concept of free will and its brain basis, and explores the implications for consciousness, moral responsibility, the law, and AI." ―Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, author of Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain
"Brilliant, powerfully argued, and important, Free Agents shakes up the age-old debate about free will by emphasizing what humans share with all organisms―all forms of life, even the simplest, make choices and have agency. Applying that insight and putting humans in an evolutionary context, Kevin Mitchell's innovative account is required reading for anyone interested in this fundamental question. Highly recommended!" ―Matthew Cobb, author of Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code
"At long last, a fresh approach to the free will question that is both sensible and scientifically plausible: no fudging, no hand-waving, no philosophical flimflam. Mitchell brilliantly delivers the goods, drawing on a deep understanding of evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and physics. He has an uncanny knack for rendering a complex story easy to grasp without dumbing things down. A literary gem that is downright fun to read." ―Patricia S. Churchland, author of Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition
This information about Free Agents was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kevin Mitchell is a neurogeneticist interested in the relationships between genes, brains, and minds. He is a faculty member at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, in the departments of Genetics and Neuroscience. He writes the blog Wiring the Brain (www.wiringthebrain.com) and is on Twitter @WiringtheBrain
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