RE: Is free will real?
December 21, 2014 at 10:49 am
(This post was last modified: December 21, 2014 at 10:51 am by Alex K.)
(December 21, 2014 at 10:34 am)IATIA Wrote:(December 21, 2014 at 4:20 am)Alex K Wrote: How can an action be praise-worthy if free will was involved?Free will involves the ability to make a choice. A true hero, say running into a fire to save a child, would be "praiseworthy". I am sure there are other examples, but this should do for now.
Why would then such an action be more or less praiseworthy depending on whether or not the world were completely deterministic without any free will?
Obviously, people are able to make choices in this world (otherwise, the concept of choice would not exist), and from the fact that we do not consider this proof that there is free will, I conclude that in common usage these two concepts are not directly tied to one another, and people would be able to make choices in a world without free will according to the usual definitions of the term, whatever they are.
One can then always take a step back and ask why someone with or without free will chooses to be a hero. Can you point me to a place in this chain where the distinction of free will or no free will comes in to determine why one scenario is more laudable than the other?
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
