Once it was straight-forward. We were born free and shackled by self-serving authority. Now many, from neuroscientists to social theorists, argue we are not free in the first place. Constrained by our genes, manipulated by technology and the cultural zeitgeist, there seems little space left for individual freedom.
Should we conclude that the very idea of freedom was a mistake? Or is this a madness that threatens our personal lives and the culture on which the West was built?
Historian of ideas and author of Life Lessons from Hobbes Hannah Dawson, post-realist philosopher Hilary Lawson, neuropsychologist and science writer Paul Broks and author of Freedom Regained Julian Baggini ask who's really in control.