9
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
Personally I agree with you and have found the debate about free will to be pretty pointless.
Yes I think we have free will, but in the end it seems to be just a debate about semantics.
I would say ...
- 198
9
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
There are positive and negative consequences to coming to a belief that there is no free will, and to continuing to believe we have free will. Inasmuch as we might ever be able to decide the truth of ...
- 4,517
8
votes
Does omniscience negate free will?
As worded, I'm not sure if this is a great question, but there's a good deal of very recent literature on the precise question you seem to be raising.
Worded at it's simplest, the question is
1. ...
- 25k
4
votes
Does libertarian free will necessarily choose the same thing every time?
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) entry on Free Will:
nearly all libertarians agree that exercises of free will require agents to be reasons-responsive (e.g., Kane 1996; O’...
- 4,517
4
votes
Accepted
Are there examples in the literature of rigorous mathematical models of libertarian free will that take the laws of physics into account?
Two cents.
Libertarian free will is supposed to be a basic concept and process in libertarianism, not reduced to further mechanisms. This is simply the way it is.
An exact mechanism would make it ...
- 2,948
4
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
I'm don't think the question, as posed, actually holds up internally. Particularly, the issue is that the reasoning in it is fundamentally based on this piece:
In both worlds, we might want to do ...
- 41
4
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
To start, not everyone sees free will as incompatible with determinism (e.g. the so-called compatibilism, etc). Personally, I think that free will arises due to incompleteness of our knowledge. If we ...
- 1,791
4
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
In the free will world, we posit that despite their circumstances, the agent can always choose the morally good option. He has the responsibility, duty, and obligation, to act good. And to improve his ...
- 2,843
4
votes
Is libertarian free will incoherent?
Libertarian (contra-causal) free will is a philosophical position which holds that choices (particularly human choices) are acts of will, not causally determined events. In other words, say person X ...
- 24.2k
3
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
It is important when you are arguing for "diminished responsibility" in the court, for instance in R V STEWART [2009] 1 WLR 2507;
Facts: The appellant was a chronic alcoholic sleeping rough. ...
- 209
3
votes
Does libertarian free will necessarily choose the same thing every time?
Here is a link to one of the most respected contemporary dualist and libertarian free will philosopher's (Richard Swinburne) take on free will: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/...
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3
votes
Are there examples in the literature of rigorous mathematical models of libertarian free will that take the laws of physics into account?
Conway and Kochen[??] have offered a so-called "free will theorem" (note: the following quote is the Wikipedia summary of their conclusion):
The free will theorem of John H. Conway and ...
- 22.6k
3
votes
Can we characterize libertarianism without assuming moral realism?
Conifold and Hubery have it exactly right.
Libertarianism is very roughly the view that necessarily an agent acts freely only if determinism is false, and that some agents act freely.
This has ...
- 36.1k
3
votes
Is there a philosophy of libertarian free will that doesn’t just devolve into randomness?
Free will is actually the very opposite of randomness. Both free will and randomness are excluded from determinism and both produce unpredictable results. But there is a very significant difference: ...
- 3,888
3
votes
Is libertarian free will incoherent?
Short answer
Yes. I have not seen a definition of libertarian free will that clearly logically closes, and captures everything meant by libertarians about free will.
BUT -- I have not seen a ...
- 17.5k
2
votes
Does omniscience negate free will?
Omniscience doesn't negate free will. Best representation about omniscience and free will relation can be found in Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, book 13.
As a short long answer: Omniscience ...
- 51
2
votes
What is character, and what role does it play in the decision making of an agent, according to proponents of libertarian free will?
"Empirical Approaches to Moral Character" is a good overview of what you are asking about (c.f. the more general such article), though see also §4 of a different SEP entry for empiricist ...
- 22.6k
2
votes
Libertarian free will and major decisions
It might be Robert Kane, the "self-forming actions" guy. The SEP article on incompatibilist theories of free will mentions that:
Kane (e.g., at 2007b: 174–75) makes a similar appeal to the ...
- 143
2
votes
Does compatibilism redefine free will?
Insofar as conceptual analysis/engineering in general is concerned, most or maybe even all strong attempts at such would involve some redefining of terms. If this were not needed to be so, then whence ...
- 22.6k
2
votes
Does compatibilism redefine free will?
Van Inwagen's definitions appear to be self-contradictory. If one's actions are determined, then basically by definition one "cannot do otherwise". In determinism, there is a causal network ...
- 17.5k
2
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
At first sight one could emphasize that the difference between the
two possibilities is captured by the concept of responsibility: In a
deterministic world there is no responsibility, while in a world ...
- 42.6k
2
votes
Is the existence of free will even important?
Yes ... no ... maybe.
The thing is the most extreme versions of determinism and free will are probably the clockwork universe and the creator god who has full power over his mind to create an entire ...
- 8,148
2
votes
Existence of counterfactuals (looking for libertarian free will perspective)
Your question is another classic that arises from the way in which we use words- in this case the word exist- in ways that are different but easily confused. When we talk of possibilities 'existing' ...
- 26.4k
2
votes
Is there a philosophy of libertarian free will that doesn’t just devolve into randomness?
Only physicalist monist causality is limited to the dichotomy between deterministic causality and random causality.
In the non-physical realm, nobody knows how causality works, so any philosopher and ...
- 7,416
2
votes
Is libertarian free will incoherent?
Willed: Brought about by the action of an agent
Deterministic: An event E is deterministic iff it has at least one sufficient cause
Random: An event E is random iff it is not deterministic.
There ...
- 18.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Is libertarian free will incoherent?
Kevin Mitchell, a scientist working in the field of genetics and neuroscience, published: “Free agents. How evolution gave us free will. Princeton Press (2023)”.
His preface takes Denett as ...
- 42.6k
2
votes
Is libertarian free will incoherent?
Let's get more precise and break "random" down further into its 2 possible meanings: (for completeness' sake, if nothing else)
Probabilistic: behaves according to some probability ...
- 13.9k
2
votes
Is libertarian free will incoherent?
Willed: Brought about by the action of an agent
That definition is way to broad. A stone rolling down a mountain can bring about an action. Though a stone rolling down a mountain is by most accounts ...
- 8,148
1
vote
Is the existence of free will even important?
Determinism in human behaviour is the central assumption for human science, including psychology and social sciences. Can we study and predict the behaviour or humans with the same principles we use ...
- 7,588
1
vote
Is the existence of free will even important?
The argument for free will being important because otherwise people would not be responsible for their actions I find absurd.
If you have absolute free will, i.e. there is some locum of decision ...
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