RE: Do you believe in free will?
September 7, 2010 at 7:42 am
(This post was last modified: September 7, 2010 at 8:05 am by theVOID.)
Are you a compatibilist or incompatiblist determinist EvF?
I would agree with Flobee that to suppose that part of our psyche (our will) is not action caused by pre-accumulated events requires that it is not part of nature (which is a single chain of prior events in any possible world, pre-determined or not) and therefore not part of the brain - it is simply substance dualism (the belief that the Mental is distinct from the physical). To believe in contra-causal (incompatibilist/Libertarian) free will requires that one believes in a part of man aside from nature, the very thing commonly known as the Soul.
In other words, contra-causal free will is incompatible with Naturalism.
(September 7, 2010 at 12:48 am)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:to admit that we truly have free will is to admit that we are actually a person with an immaterial soul
That strikes me as a non sequitur.
In the news today a man was arrested after leading police on a chase while driving a dump truck. Was that little exercise of "free will" due to the fact of an "immaterial soul" or due to the fact that he's an idiot?
I've frequently seen outlandish assertions...usually disguised as "philosophy." Meaningless.
I would agree with Flobee that to suppose that part of our psyche (our will) is not action caused by pre-accumulated events requires that it is not part of nature (which is a single chain of prior events in any possible world, pre-determined or not) and therefore not part of the brain - it is simply substance dualism (the belief that the Mental is distinct from the physical). To believe in contra-causal (incompatibilist/Libertarian) free will requires that one believes in a part of man aside from nature, the very thing commonly known as the Soul.
In other words, contra-causal free will is incompatible with Naturalism.
.