RE: Is free will real?
December 22, 2014 at 8:10 am
(This post was last modified: December 22, 2014 at 8:27 am by The Grand Nudger.)
The minute we have to draw a line between big and little r realities, or claim that things are real "in their own context" that just about settles how fictional they are. Christian Grey is real in his own context. 
I do get what you're trying to say though Benny...and I do agree that free will is at least -as real- as many other things in human experience. I don't see what's lost or gained by free will personally. It's easy for me to throw it out,I suppose, since there seems to be no difference between having it or not having it. I'm not sure what it is that's tied to free will - I think maybe those things are tied to free will for you but how exactly do we demonstrate that something is tied to an unknown. Does the mooring proceed from something tangible and then terminate mid-air..indian rope trick style? In any case, there is only a very minor difference between our positions on the matter. I'd call free will as real as a procedural stack or a program instruction - but also as "unreal" as both. The experience -of it- I'm willing to chalk up as fantasy whole cloth. Even if I have free will and I am using it...some of the things I experience -as- Free Willing™ I positively know are not. That knowledge doesn't seem to alter the experience, of course.
I do get what you're trying to say though Benny...and I do agree that free will is at least -as real- as many other things in human experience. I don't see what's lost or gained by free will personally. It's easy for me to throw it out,I suppose, since there seems to be no difference between having it or not having it. I'm not sure what it is that's tied to free will - I think maybe those things are tied to free will for you but how exactly do we demonstrate that something is tied to an unknown. Does the mooring proceed from something tangible and then terminate mid-air..indian rope trick style? In any case, there is only a very minor difference between our positions on the matter. I'd call free will as real as a procedural stack or a program instruction - but also as "unreal" as both. The experience -of it- I'm willing to chalk up as fantasy whole cloth. Even if I have free will and I am using it...some of the things I experience -as- Free Willing™ I positively know are not. That knowledge doesn't seem to alter the experience, of course.
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