Free Will, Determinism, and Compatibilism

A defense of compatibilism.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• epistemology
• free
• will
• volition
• determinism
• compatibilism

[Nervousification]

Strange. You admit that if something did not follow causality, it would contradict it's very nature and you even go on to say that no exceptions to causality seem to exist. You then go on to say decisions are free of causality. So you have admitted that decisions contradict the nature of a decision as well as not seeming to exist. By your own words, you have confirmed the argument of determinism, my friend. /Socrates impersonation

[XOmniverse]

@Nervousification "You then go on to say decisions are free of causality." I did not say this.

[neborg67]

Problem with the logic for Premise 2 as "observation" and empirical evidence is that it assumes decisions are made just from the brain. As a Theist, I believe we have a soul, and we cannot assume that the super natural works the same as the natural laws of this universe (i.e. Causality).

[XOmniverse]

@neborg67 Then the burden of proof is on you to explain what a soul is and successfully demonstrate that it exists, if you want anyone else to take the notion seriously.

[crusty7208]

pity about all the spelling errors...sorry

[crusty7208]

Very good and it sounds like objectivism but without the objection to determism. It so happens that I share your emphasis on causality except that I express it somewhat differently...I say derterminsm and casusality are tortological. They are synonyms in a sense. Anyone who believes that causality is unversal and inescapable has no justification to deny determinsm but has not yet been able to reconcile them intuitively. However what I really wanted to say as a minor critisism is that you mentio

[Darkwolverine06]

intersing video.

[HedgehogRebellion]

The DNA wired 3 pound chunk of wiring nature gave you

PLUS

The experiences that you have been thru in your life that have been stored in your brain as memory engrams

EQUALS

Who you are!

[Nervousification]

@XOmniverse Right on, I you only said that was commonly believed, my mistake. Still, it seems like what your calling compatibalism is actually determinism. I can hold determinism and your new definition of "decision" without contradiction.

[Clear404]

COmpatibilists seem to think that it is enough to show that we still make choices if determiism is true to thereby vindicate possession of free will. Not at all. No one seriously denies we make decisions. The claim, rather, is that if these decisions are deterministically caused then they are not free, at least not in the sense presupposed by our judgements of moral responsibility. After all, compatibilist free will is compatible with being covertly controlled - which clearly rules out respon

[Clear404]

Nice, but I think your argument fails. Your premises - all of them - are actually consistent with incompatibilism. I'm an incompatibilist and I certainly don't deny that causality is a reality (indeterminism is compatible with causality and most incompatibilists don't think free will involves uncaused decisions). I also don't deny that we make decisions - for a 'decision' is just a mental event terminating a process of deliberation. I wll, in my next post, explain the compatibilist's mistake.