(July 31, 2016 at 3:08 pm)RozKek Wrote:(July 31, 2016 at 2:34 pm)Irrational Wrote: Regarding the causal chain question, I answered that question a few pages back, remember? And you actually responded to that, remember?
I don't agree that I'm just an observer and experiencer of my decisions. I also play a role in formulating these decisions even if I'm only conscious of them after they are made. You seem to think that I am only my conscious part of the self.
Ahh, you're correct. I forgot about it my bad.
Irrational Wrote: Perhaps you're asking the wrong question. This is not a challenge for compatibilists, but rather for libertarians. A compatibilist can perfectly say you can't break the causal chain but still have free will because free will is not about the ability to break causal chains.
However, I thought about this again.
RozKek Wrote: But thinking about it, even by the gun example, your will is still constricted/bound and cannot be changed at all, it will be what it is, so it is still not free. No one's holding a gun to your head, but classical physics got your will chained to itself, it's not free one way or another.
Now we're back to adressing the causal chain issue. You're playing a role in your decisions, if you want to you can say that, but let's say you decided to go for decision B out of all the decisions. Why you decided to go for decision B isn't ultimately your choice because it's in the causal chain i.e your neurons moved in a certain caused way causing you to decide decision B and your neurons are governed by classical physics in other words they're determined and like said there's no free if it's already determined. If you cannot break it then you cannot have free will. Now you're the one contradicting yourself. You can't have a free will where you're the one ultimately deciding while at the same time you can't break the causal chain, it's nonsensical. Yes you can decide, but it's not free aslong as you cannot break the causal chain, and ultimately decide for yourself.
A compatibilist can say we have free will and can't break the causal chain, but the free he speaks about is e.g that no one's holding a gun to his head but his will is instead constrained by classical physics and the causal chain.
Tell me, how are you free if you're already determined to do what you're going to do something? How can you possibly change something that has been determined? If you say you can then you're implying that you can break the causal chain, but you can't.
All this boils down to is you not willing to accept the application of certain reasonable definitions of freedom other than that one definition that you have in mind.