I was hoping to find compelling reasoning--perhaps it's just the article and the book's better. > What the student experiences as a decision to grab the pen is

I was hoping to find compelling reasoning--perhaps it's just the article and the book's better. > What the student experiences as a decision to grab the pen is preceded by a jumble of competing impulses beyond his or her conscious control. Maybe their pique is heightened because they skipped lunch; maybe they're subconsciously triggered by the professor's resemblance to an irritating relative. > [...] All of those influences subtly nudge behavior in predictable ways. > So many factors beyond your conscious awareness brought you to that pen that it's hard to say how much you "chose" to pick it up at all. Not very compelling at all. The most one could say is that we are not certain to have free will, not that we certainly do not. A better way is to be pragmatic and do what we can, rather than try to decide who's at fault and punish them to our satisfaction--see Norway's system[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_Norway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_Norway