RE: Determinism vs Free Will
May 13, 2010 at 9:29 pm
(This post was last modified: May 13, 2010 at 9:38 pm by fr0d0.)
(May 12, 2010 at 1:33 pm)Saerules Wrote: Even among christians... many of them believe that some god has a plan for them. Whilst many would claim that they believe in free will... both cannot be true. ^_^Orly?
Theirs would be an inaccurate statement then, because we know that believing in pre-determinism and being, at the same time, free agents : is what they really mean
(May 12, 2010 at 4:58 pm)Caecilian Wrote: Personally, I'm a compatibilist re. free will/ determinism. This is the third philosophical option, libertarian free will and determinism being the other two. As the name suggests, compatibilists argue that there is no contradiction between free will and determinism.If you did X because of the influence of your personal history, then your will (personal choice) was not free but determined. You don't have free will but are a free agent to do as your influence dictates, given the ability to act upon it.
According to compatibilism, 'free will' is not about causation at all. Its about responsibility for and ownership of actions. If I say that I did X of my own free will, then what I'm saying is that my actions were due to me (my history, beliefs, desires etc), and were authentically mine. If I do X because someone is pointing a gun at my head, then I'm doing it because of external coercion, and not because of reasons that are mine- thus not of my own free will. By contrast, if I do X because I had a bad childhood (part of my personal history), then I am doing it of my own free will.
