Free Will Debate

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

He may be, but if he is, there is no free will.  Dennet’s compatibilism rests on the necessity to redefine free will in light of hard determinism.

Is it really a redefinition if the original concept is so vague that nothing can really be said about it?

Exactly what does the term 'free will' mean?

Does it require that there is more than one possible future whenever a choice is made? If so, what about physics suggests that is a real possibility?

---

But your preferences, your emotions, your experiences and your internal states all didn’t exist until you did, and all of them only exist in the manner they do solely because of factors with are all ultimates external to you.   so how are these “internal” processes in any way whatsoever ultimately less external than any of what you would call “external” factors?

They are internal because they are *in me*. In the same sense that the fusion reactions that power the sun are in the sun, not external to it. Sure, the hydrogen in the sun ultimately came from outside of the sun, but that doesn't seem very relevant.

The point is that very minor changes to the internal state would lead to large differences in the results. That means that the 'causal nexus', if you will, is within my brain and body. That is distinct from what happens if, say, the wind blows slightly differently. That *won't* mean that the actions I take will be substantially different.

This ultimately relies on chaotic dynamics: sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The conditions that determine which brand of milk I choose depend mostly on events happening in my brain. Those are part of my interaction with my environment, as it should be. And what happens in my brain *is me*. I am not something distinct from the processes in my brain. At least, my psychology isn't.

---

It doesn’t. We have no way to tell if any event - from tying a shoelace to dropping atomic bombs - is a willed event or a pre-determined one.

Boru

What makes you think those are exclusive possibilities? Why cannot something be both willed and pre-determined?

Because there are no married bachelors.

Boru