Prof Tom Stafford – Free thought: can you ever be a truly independent thinker?

Each of us feels that we freely choose our actions, yet we know that the world around us – including other minds – has a profound influence on us. How can we reconcile ideas of free will with the evidence on the many influences on human behaviour, from genes and culture to advertising and argument? In this talk I will review the evidence that we lack free will and argue that we have a kind of freedom worth wanting, one that is revealed by our connections to the wider world, not insulated from it.

TOM STAFFORD is Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sheffield. His research centers on learning, decision making and argumentation. You can read more from him in the short ebook