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DID you freely choose to read this or was your decision predetermined? The question of whether we truly have free will is one of the oldest and most contentious of all. It certainly feels like we do, so it might also strike you as the worst kind of “armchair philosophy” – an abstract intellectual pursuit, far removed from anything to do with real life.
However, the question has echoed down the centuries not only because it is an existential one, but also because it impinges on how we think about moral responsibility: if the freedom to choose our actions is an …