RE: If free will was not real
July 27, 2016 at 9:31 pm
(This post was last modified: July 27, 2016 at 9:37 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(July 27, 2016 at 9:21 pm)bennyboy Wrote: Yeah, sounds a lot like magic, or like God.Obviously, that;s entirely out of consideration for me....but I do allow for there being some x that isn;t described by those two things. A bootstrapper. A higher order ability due to a confluence of lower order things which do not possess it.
Quote:Well, to me, free will is a word for a category of experience, like the experience of picking my favorite ice cream. This accords well with the way we use other subjective words: nobody says, "It's not REALLY love, it's just hormones," because the experience of the hormones and other sensations are called love.Because love isn't so easily contradicted. Love is love, it rarely seems like hate. Free will, when people describe it, doesn't seem to be so free.
Quote:Free will really has under it issues about the nature of agency: are we a collection of QM particles, or are we more than that? The answer is yes and yes. So at the top level, the question is does something happen with a collection of brain functions that is MORE than just the sum of the brain functions? I'd say yes, since individual neurons probably aren't conscious, and since a whole brain is.I'd agree, individual neurons probably aren't conscious, a whole brain is (even part of a brain can be)...but does that have something to do with free will?
Quote:I'm also perplexed by the "magic" view of free will. I see free will as the natural expression of the intent of a personal agent. For sure, that includes feelings, hormones, instincts, the brain, etc. Maybe it includes that mysterious "factor X." But in my view, the latter isn't really necessary. All that's necessary is that I be able to form intent, and to manifest that intent as behavior.You have a more a compatibilist view of free will..I imagine. I don't think that the term makes sense at all. Being willing to -call- black blue, and black -being- blue are two different things. If the process by which you form intent is not free....I'd simply say that your will is not free. Not that you didn't have a will, or intent.
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