Just me attempting to figure out where the miscommunication/misunderstanding (I'm not sure which it is yet) is between Matt and I. I think we'll arrive SOMEWHERE eventually, and I'm not giving up until we do.
Mechanism means there is no "interiority." It means there is no "inside" that wants, or feels, or chooses. There are only parts banging into other parts based on algorithmic programming. I think it is incoherent to believe that reality is basically this way, and yet still talk about "consciousness" or "freedom" of any kind. If nature is mechanical, there should not be anything like sentience. If materialism is true, you should not be able to feel anything.
Radical free will... what is that? I don't believe in a will that is in contradiction to causality. I just don't think efficient causation has anything to do with what happens "now." It has everything to do with what happened in the past, with what I am forced to begin my attempt at creation from; but it does not determine what happens next. Efficient causality is what's given- it is not what I choose to do next (though it does constrain what my choices are).
Mechanism means there is no "interiority." It means there is no "inside" that wants, or feels, or chooses. There are only parts banging into other parts based on algorithmic programming. I think it is incoherent to believe that reality is basically this way, and yet still talk about "consciousness" or "freedom" of any kind. If nature is mechanical, there should not be anything like sentience. If materialism is true, you should not be able to feel anything.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
Radical free will... what is that? I don't believe in a will that is in contradiction to causality. I just don't think efficient causation has anything to do with what happens "now." It has everything to do with what happened in the past, with what I am forced to begin my attempt at creation from; but it does not determine what happens next. Efficient causality is what's given- it is not what I choose to do next (though it does constrain what my choices are).
I think we need to talk in person!
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago