Free Will, Anyone?
friendlyostrich
It's not unique, but it seems to be rare. I support the pessimists,
and think compatibilists are cruel people for seeking to punish those
who could never have escaped their comeuppances (or their commision of
affronts or crimes). Another thing: is there any way to take the
subjectivity out of the debate between voluntariness and origination?
I'd like to think I can do it, but I am not educated formally in
philosophy. So, I invite you to point out my mistakes. I subscribe
to what I have gleaned from Galen Strawson's paper that serves as the
"free will" entry in the online Rutledge Encyclopedia,
http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/V014.
Timothy Golden http://www.BandTechnology.com
> I have done a little reading on free will,
I haven't yet gone to the link but wish to suggest that skepticism is a
far more relevant belief than pissimism. The skeptist seeks the weak
link in the chain. The pissimist seeks none. The skeptic has the
ability to improve the chain. The pessimist does not.
-Tim
friendlyostrich
I will have to look up the relevant technical definitions for
"pessimism" and "skepticism." I have not found skepticism in any of my
reading about free will. By pessimist I mean I tend to think that free
will is incompatible with determinism and that determinism is probably
true. I also think that free will and indeterminism are incompatible,
and that there is no middle ground between determinism and
indeterminism, as some libertarians (Robert Kane, Corliss Lamont)
suggest there is.
However, I have recently read of the "modal fallacy" of which
incompatibilism is guilty. I will do a little thinking about what
implications that has, and "cheat" by reading further. And
compatibilism is, I have found, more developed than I had known. My
pessimistic position is the result of my having read about the dividing
lines in the discussion of free will, and categorizing myself before
having read much of anything on the topic. So it is subject to change
as I become better acquainted with the arguments out there.
As a skeptic, what is your position?
Hans
Timothy Golden http://www.BandTechnology.com
Free will and determinism. Good topics.
There is a great movie called "What the bleep do we know?".
It presents a sound philosophy based around quantum mechanics.
In a strictly deterministic world the future is a function of the
current state and therefor there is no choice and therefor no free
will.
Due to the random component of existence strict determinism is not
valid.
This is countered by something akin to stability, which is a
predictable phenomena. For example, if I put a grain of salt on my
windowsill and look for it tomorrow it will be there, and if it is not
there I might still find it nearby. That example may not be the most
pertinent but it's about that simple.
Free will also is not an absolute concept, but this is at a human scale
rather than a physical level phenomenon. I think psychologically just
the idea that there are various components of our brain competing for
control of what happens next is enough to dispell free will. That being
said we are still left with an enormous set of future possibilities,
some of which will be manifest. Weight loss is a great example of a
failing of freedom of choice amongst U.S. Americans. It is clearly a
competition of components of our brain, with a very base part winning
out over a more rational component. Enough of the human state. The
physical state is far more important.
I do believe we need to be careful about discrete thinking, where for a
given context there are two states and we are forced to pick one. I see
that is how you are looking at determinism vs. indeterminism. But what
then is indeterminism? The problem is open and we should also consider
that the very context we are processing the problem in may be
inaccurate. I like the stability context better than the deterministic
one. And perhaps there is a new construction that will take place of
them both; a new context.
I don't really understand compatibilism. That is a new context for me.
Do you believe in one reality?
This is another interesting juncture to free will, for if multiple
realities exist and all paths are taken then all of these issues are
destroyed. We are left with a puzzle of how to resolve the one reality
that we perceive.
-Tim