053 - Do We Have Free Will? Reason and Evolution Suggest "Yes" (with Qualifications)

A question for the ages -  are we free?

A recent survey of over 1,700 philosophers worldwide found that over 50% hold a compatibilist view, that both determinism and free will co-exist.  Hegel was a champion of freedom and made it the cornerstone of his philosophy.  He also recognized that much of our lives are also pre-determined.  

In this episode I will argue that free-will  occurs in the present moment, where we have some degree of freedom to choose between alternative paths that we can envision.  Only humans have this capability of thought to look to the future.   

Without  free-will, the universe becomes dead, with no purpose or no rationality behind it.   As Charles Peirce as well as Hegel have posited, this freedom is baked into the core of the cosmos itself.   The current episode discusses this important question from several different standpoints, including time, randomness, reason, purpose, and evolution.

Transcript is available on the podcast's Facebook page, @cunningofgeist.