RE: Free Will
September 1, 2016 at 9:26 am
(This post was last modified: September 1, 2016 at 9:28 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(September 1, 2016 at 9:11 am)bennyboy Wrote: I get it. You are talking about determinism.Not really. Hit ctrl/alt/delete. Whats the point of that screen in front of you...it's not like it helps the system to "do stuff". It would "do stuff" without that screen. Utilities exist...because they have utility.
What's the point of consciousness, by which I mean the ability to actually experience qualia, then? If it's all just brain "doing stuff," then what's the point of having an agent around to serve only as a sideline observer? Why have the illusion of free will at all? That's a pretty curious byproduct, I'd say.
Do you actually have the "illusion" of free will...or do you just have the experience of will? I know that in my case, it's only the latter. I can generally identify moments when my will is constrained...and when I can;t...I really don;t know why it is what is is. To claim that I experience it to be free would be claiming one thing too many.
Quote:But my position is a little more semantic than that. I have experiences, and I use words to describe them. I go to 7-11, I sit there for a minute deciding what I want, then I buy and consume it. That's about as free as it gets, and it doesn't really matter to me what's going on in the machinery underneath.See, you don't actually have an illusion of freedom either. You find utility in the term even if the terms referent is nowhere to be found in what you describe.
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