For a fascinating read on the matter of can a person change, read the book "Determined: A Science of Life WIthout Free Will" by Robert Sapolsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sapolsky . Sapolsky is "American academic, neuroscientist, and primatologist. He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford University, and is a professor of biology, neurology, and neurosurgery." (Wikipedia). I find him convincing that there is no free will; however, as I understand it, that doesn't mean we can't seem to change, just that even our changing is predetermined. So I guess one could then ask, practically speaking, what does it matter? We still just go on living our lives determined by our genes and human histories and make up while believing we have free will.
For a fascinating read on the matter of can a person change, read the book "Determined: A Science of Life WIthout Free Will" by Robert Sapolsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sapolsky . Sapolsky is "American academic, neuroscientist, and primatologist. He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford University, and is a professor of biology, neurology, and neurosurgery." (Wikipedia). I find him convincing that there is no free will; however, as I understand it, that doesn't mean we can't seem to change, just that even our changing is predetermined. So I guess one could then ask, practically speaking, what does it matter? We still just go on living our lives determined by our genes and human histories and make up while believing we have free will.