(November 1, 2022 at 12:00 pm)Jehanne Wrote:(November 1, 2022 at 10:23 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: If there can be only one perfect being, in the Scholastic sense, then by necessity all other being would be imperfect and subject to privation of some good. That is not absurd. It is supremely sensible. Also, within the Scholastic tradition, which underpins Catholic dogma, freewill seems to be defined more in terms of an individual's desire and ability to manifest good in their lives when presented with the opportunity and not so much about isolated decisions.
Free will means that "it could have been otherwise", hence, we can impute moral responsibility to others based upon their choices, or, so the argument goes.
The scientific evidence is that we "choose" certain actions prior to even be conscious of our "choices", which is not at all "supremely sensible".
Free will is not a scientific concept. There can only be evidence of what we did choose, never of counterfactual outcomes. Physical laws proceed deterministically, with occasional stochastic interruptions due to quantum effects. In either case, human will, whatever that is, can have no influence.
