normative

Free Will Lives at the Psychological Level

Denying free will amounts to taking a physicist's view of psychology and eliminating psychology altogether; while the decision-making apparatus is itself evolved and not chosen, given that apparatus the individual genuinely chooses within it, and the existence of agentive decision-makers requires keeping levels straight rather than reducing everything to deterministic physics—moreover, no one truly behaves as if free will is false, since they still get angry at others and worry over decisions.

normativepending

Speaker

Michael Tomasello

Evidence Quote

unless you want to eliminate psychology, you need that individual making the decision. And it's not a homunculus, it's just organized as a control system.

Source

225 | Michael Tomasello on The Social Origins of Cognition and AgencySean Carroll's Mindscape
Created: 6/13/2026, 12:05:28 AM

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