Defying Fate, Defending Free Will: The Case Against Determinism

This collection of essays from the online current-affairs magazine spiked takes a hard and critical look at the way free will has been called into question in recent years. More and more these days, a new style of determinist, citing the authority of neuroscience, genetics, the early years of child development or physics, will argue that the idea of free will is a myth and that actually an individual's behaviours and identity are fixed by forces beyond his control. Everything from our sexuality to our political leanings is now said to be a product of genetics or parenting factors. We are all 'born this way'. But are we, really? The essayists in this collection expose how deterministic thinking is informed more by pessimism than fact, and put the case for the ability and right of humans to determine their own characters and destinies.