A new study is out finding evidence that believing in free will vs. determinism actually changes one's behavior.
"Psychological scientist Davide Rigoni of the University of Padova, Italy, wanted to see if weakening people’s belief in free will might have an effect on volition and intent, as reflected in the brain’s electrical activity. To explore this question, he recruited a group of volunteers and had some of them read a passage from Nobel laureate Francis Crick’s book The Astonishing Hypothesis, which argues that free will is a delusion—and furthermore that there is scientific consensus behind this view. This exercise has been shown in previous research to attenuate belief in free will, and indeed it did so in these volunteers to varying degrees. The other volunteers also read from the text, but nothing about free will."
(http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/a-sobering-message-about-free-will.html)
James in "The Dilemma of Determinism" describes how the debate on determinism vs. free will has no pragmatic value - since the truth or falsity of either position has no influence on human actions, on how we move about in the world. If the hypothesis substantiated by this new research turns out to be true, then James was wrong. However, if believing in determinism reduces our tendency to agency (things like self-discipline, inhibition, etc.) then we have a pragmatic reason to believe in free will.
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