[ExI] Free Will vs. Determinism

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Thu Mar 13 14:01:43 UTC 2008


Bryan writes

>> Does this mean the processes of nature {genes and environment}
>> determine man's behavior?
> 
> Man is not so separate from nature as you might think.
> 
>> Like it or not, there is no free will. 

The "compatibilist position" which I endorse says that free will
and determinism are not really in conflict. To me, it ought rightly
said that if one makes choices then one has free will. Obversely,
one of us will be said to not have free will if he is being 
compelled, and is "not free" to make his choices.

> It's best to maximize your behaviors as if you had free will,
> otherwise you lose out. 

Yes, anyone who claims that he has no free will can always
be put on the spot, as everyone knows, by the simple question
"about that decision you just made... did you make it freely
or did you feel yourself undersome compulsion".  And if it
turns out that there is a Mafia hit man behind the curtain,
it makes sense to say that his decision was compelled rather
than free.

I go so far as to say that a completely deterministic weather
computer program which always reaches the same decision
given thesame inputs "decides", say, its probability that there
will be a storm.

My above arguments really only make complete sense to those
who have so thoroughly banished the classical idea of  "uncaused
events" that free will should never be taken to mean anything but
what the compatibalists say.

Lee




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