28. Galen Strawson's "Nothing Can be Causa Sui" Refutation of Free Will
Channel: Georgeo57
Date: 2012-04-24

In this episode of Exploring the Illusion of Free Will, taped on August 9, 2011, I describe British philosopher Galen Strawson's refutation of free will based on a logical extension of the principle that nothing can be the cause of itself.

The debate over whether humans have a free will languished for centuries in academia.  In 2010, George Ortega decided it was time to move the issue to the public arena in a big way.  Ortega spearheaded a buzz about free will that ultimately led to an explosion in mainstream media and Internet coverage, including cover stories by New Scientist and Scientific American Mind magazines. For a description and chronology of how he did it, see "History of How Refuting Free Will Went From Academia to the Public Spotlight" at http://exogenousagency.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/history-of-how-refuting-free-will-went-from-academia-to-the-public-spotlight/  The article includes over three dozen hyper-linked mainstream press articles on the topic between 2004 and 2012.

For dozens of episodes from the world's first and only ongoing initiative exclusively dedicated to exposing free will as an illusion, visit Ortega's site at http://causalconsciousness.com/.  Our initiative includes two television programs -  A weekly show with live call-in episodes on Manhattan's MNN, and a weekly television series cablecast to White Plains, New York, select Westchester, County, New York communities and Manhattan.

Audio versions of the episodes are available for free through iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/exploring-illusion-free-will/id528476841  

This episode is in the public domain.  Please feel free to download it to your computer, or share it online or through other venues.