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Don Watkins
Don Watkins

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Mar 3, 2022

Smart responses to my essay on free will

In “Sam Harris’s Delusional Case for Determinism,” I argued that free will exists as our freedom to think or not, and that the case for determinism is baseless and unscientific. Shockingly, not everyone agreed, so I wanted to address the best questions and objections. What do we introspect? I argued that, fundamentally, volition is…

Ayn Rand

12 min read

Smart responses to my essay on free will
Smart responses to my essay on free will
Ayn Rand

12 min read


Feb 25, 2022

Sam Harris’s Delusional Case for Determinism

Don Watkins Nothing is more terrifying than being out of control. If you’ve ever hallucinated, or hydroplaned in your car, or been the victim of a violent crime — there’s an overwhelming sense that your fate is no longer in your hands. Whether or not you live or die feels…

Sam Harris

20 min read

Sam Harris’s Delusional Case for Determinism
Sam Harris’s Delusional Case for Determinism
Sam Harris

20 min read


Feb 19, 2022

Everyone is WRONG about happiness

Comedian Mitch Hedberg has this great joke about red wine: I like red wine; this girl said “doesn’t red wine give you a headache?” “Ya, eventually, but the first and middle part are amazing” That’s kind of how I feel about yo-yo dieting. Yeah, in the end you wind…

10 min read

Everyone is WRONG about happiness
Everyone is WRONG about happiness

10 min read


Feb 13, 2022

How to choose a cognitive subculture: A guide for non-cranks

Don Watkins To whatever extent you value political liberty, you face a certain tension: you have to defend exercises of freedom that you think are wrong, distasteful, even immoral. …

Rationality

7 min read

How to choose a cognitive subculture: A guide for non-cranks
How to choose a cognitive subculture: A guide for non-cranks
Rationality

7 min read


Published in The Kernel

·Feb 7, 2022

Nothing Is More Dangerous Than Sacrificing Progress To Safety

Progress and innovation require ingenuity and learning; both have been missing from the nuclear industry. — by Robert Hendershott and Don Watkins Nuclear power is experiencing something of a renaissance: Commonwealth Fusion recently raised $1.8b. But safer, smaller, more versatile fission technologies are getting increasing pushback despite being far closer to real-world application than fusion. Opponents of new fission technologies claim that despite nuclear fission having…

Nuclear

3 min read

Nothing Is More Dangerous Than Sacrificing Progress To Safety
Nothing Is More Dangerous Than Sacrificing Progress To Safety
Nuclear

3 min read


Jan 9, 2021

Twitter must stop giving a platform to its destroyers

By Don Watkins and Yaron Brook Twitter’s ban on Donald Trump has been met with charges of “censorship.” But the real threat to free speech isn’t Twitter: it’s the people calling for government control of Twitter. Censorship means the forcible prohibition of speech — something only government can do. Freedom…

4 min read

Twitter must stop giving a platform to its destroyers
Twitter must stop giving a platform to its destroyers

4 min read


Nov 26, 2020

Creating Your Hierarchy of Values

By Don Watkins Thanksgiving is supposed to be a day when we show gratitude for our values. But what I’ve been reflecting on is how to value. In Human Action, the great economist Ludwig von Mises writes that, “Now, we must realize that valuing means to prefer a to b.” …

6 min read

Creating Your Hierarchy of Values
Creating Your Hierarchy of Values

6 min read


Oct 29, 2020

How to read (and then to write)

By Don Watkins Learn to Read If you want to communicate ideas effectively, try this: Read the writers with whom you agree from the perspective of the readers you want to persuade. We are, as a rule, way too easy and forgiving of writers who support (or who seem to support) our own…

7 min read

How to read (and then to write)
How to read (and then to write)

7 min read


Oct 18, 2020

Dangerous Misinformation

In a recent Facebook comment, Craig Biddle accuses me of spreading “dangerous misinformation” in my note on Carl Barney’s statement. I’ve been accused of much worse in my time, but Craig’s comments are worth examining for the wider lessons we can draw about the meaning of the principle that knowledge…

11 min read

Dangerous Misinformation
Dangerous Misinformation

11 min read


Oct 8, 2020

A word on Carl Barney’s essay

Carl Barney has posted a lengthy essay on how Craig Biddle has been treated unjustly by “some at ARI” — in particular, ARI’s leading intellectual, Onkar Ghate. And I see a number of Objectivists confused about what to make of it. …

4 min read

A word on Carl Barney’s essay
A word on Carl Barney’s essay

4 min read

Don Watkins

Don Watkins

898 Followers

Writer. Speaker. Thinker.

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