by Steve James on Fri Oct 20, 2023 7:15 am
The essential problem is that there's no real definition of free will. Obviously, we make choices every day. "Do I respond on this thread or not?" Otoh, I'm not choosing to breathe or circulate blood. So, is free will whatever do or whatever we think? If we drop a cup and pick it up before it hits the floor, was that free will even if we didn't think about it?
I don't know. However, the bigger question is whether everything that happens, physically and in the mind, is an inevitable result from the Big Bang (or before). I.e., it's all a matter of physics and chemistry.
From the quote from his book, I tend to agree that behaviors we think are chosen are actually the result of many factors -if that result is what he considers "free-will." Afa the physicalist idea that free will doesn't exist because it's all chemistry, my problem is that thought, though chemical, isn't information that was created at the "beginning" of the universe. We have certain expectations of cause and effect, but that's just our perception. Physicists generally agree that the universe operates at the quantum level beyond our perception, and which to us is random.
Anyway, it's cool as a thought experiment, but doesn't really matter. Today, someone is going to steal something and get caught. They can say they had no free will, but that won't be enough for bail. Maybe the religious idea of "free will" allowed people to decide which behaviors would receive punishment. So, without free will, people would excuse their actions. Seems like the people who created those rule broke them regularly.
"A man is rich when he has time and freewill. How he chooses to invest both will determine the return on his investment."