Book Review: _Free Will_ by Sam Harris

In this review of Sam Harris’ short book, Free Will, Leslie Allan shares his overall impression of the book in addition to casting a critical eye over Harris’ two key arguments. The first of these is that we ought to abandon our belief that we exercise free will for the reason that all of our thoughts and actions are in principle predicable. Secondly, Harris attempts to rescue us from the seemingly bleak conclusion resulting from this realization. Even though our thoughts are delivered to us by an impersonal and uncaring cosmos, none the less, Harris argues, we are morally responsible for our actions.