Free Agents - by Kevin Mitchell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An evolutionary case for the existence of free will

Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency--or free will--is an illusion. In Free Agents, leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence to the contrary, arguing that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose.

Traversing billions of years of evolution, Mitchell tells the remarkable story of how living beings capable of choice arose from lifeless matter. He explains how the emergence of nervous systems provided a means to learn about the world, granting sentient animals the capacity to model, predict, and simulate. Mitchell reveals how these faculties reached their peak in humans with our abilities to imagine and to be introspective, to reason in the moment, and to shape our possible futures through the exercise of our individual agency. Mitchell's argument has important implications--for how we understand decision making, for how our individual agency can be enhanced or infringed, for how we think about collective agency in the face of global crises, and for how we consider the limitations and future of artificial intelligence.

An astonishing journey of discovery, Free Agents offers a new framework for understanding how, across a billion years of Earth history, life evolved the power to choose, and why it matters.

Review Quotes

"Impressive."---Brian Clegg, Popular Science

"

A challenge to neuro-reductionism. . . . As Mitchell explains the growth of agency across 12 penetrating and fluent chapters, they read not like a series of academic lectures but rather a stimulating conversation where a reader's next question is anticipated and answered.

"---Peter Sterling, Current Biology

"

A sophisticated, scientific response to determinism. . . . [A] provocative and special contribution to the discourse on free will.

"---Stetson Thacker, Holodoxa

"

Two popular books. . . have breathed new life into the ancient debate over whether we have free will. In Free Agents, Kevin Mitchell argues that we do, and in Determined, Robert Sapolsky argues that we don't. To be blunt, on the big issue at hand - Mitchell is right and Sapolsky is wrong. . . . [H]ow can the information in our brains come together to form a coherent and causally potent self? Mitchell offers a strikingly lucid evolutionary story of how such a self emerged.

"---Oliver Waters, Three Quarks Daily

"[Mitchell] makes a powerful case that history of life, in all its complex grandeur, cannot be appreciated until we understand the evolution of agency--and then, in creatures of sufficient complexity, the evolution of conscious free will. . . . [Free Agents] builds an argument that is methodical and crisp, and it cuts through years of disputation like a knife through cotton candy."---James Gleick, New York Review of Books

"A highly original and very persuasive book. . . . Carefully argued and fair-minded but forceful in its conclusions, Free Agents is interdisciplinary research at its best."---Joe Humphreys, Irish Times

"A masterly exposition."---George Scialabba, Hedgehog Revew

"A New Statesman Best Book of the Academic Presses"

"An eloquent defense of our common-sense understanding of the mind. . . . Excellent."---Andrew Crumey, Wall Street Journal

"Ground-breaking. . . . A significant contribution to the free will debate."-- "Paradigm Explorer"

"Humans are not, says Kevin Mitchell, the playthings of predestination. Millennia of evolution means that our nervous systems have given us the wherewithal both to imagine and to predict. Mitchell explains how this power came about and why it matters."-- "New Statesman"

"Intriguing."-- "Choice Reviews"

"Mitchell persuasively develops a more modest conception of free will that entails the evolved ability to make real choices in the service of our goals--that is, to act for our own reasons. This carefully argued, information-dense book will put a dent in any intellectual predilection toward determinism that some readers may have. It certainly did mine."---Ronald Bailey, Reason

"Mitchell's compelling and absorbing book acts both as a synthesizing primer about evolution and a powerful argument for free will. Its importance and quality are undeniable. A bold, brilliant must-read that should reach a large audience."-- "Kirkus Reviews, starred review"

"Mitchell's naturalization of free will shows that it need not be some mysterious non-physical force, but instead a cognitive phenomenon in which all manner of influences . . . are integrated into decisions to act, formulated with varying degrees of conscious awareness (of genuine will, you might say). 'You' don't generate free will; rather, the mental processes of deliberation are a part of what makes you."---Philip Ball, Times Literary Supplement

"Mitchell's retelling of life's history turns out to be a fascinating exercise with relevance far beyond the free will debate. . . . Free Agents is a tightly argued and compelling case in favour of free will. Mitchell proves himself an able wordsmith who crams profound ideas in short sentences that benefit from reading and unpacking slowly. . . . A spectacular read."---Leon Vlieger, Inquisitive Biologist

"Monumental."---Saleem H. Ali, Forbes

"Provocative."-- "Publishers Weekly"

About the Author

Kevin J. Mitchell is associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He is the author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are (Princeton) and runs a popular blog, Wiring the Brain. His work has appeared in publications such as Scientific American, the Guardian, and Psychology Today.