I didn’t want to derail this conversation into another free will debate, it wasn’t my main focus, so I will try to be “brief” on responding to your view on free will:
It seems that you subscribe to the “standard model” against free will, that is, either things are determined by external causes, and you have no free will, or they are random, in which that would also constitute the nullification of free will. I am not sure your 3 arguments are actually distinct; they basically point to the same source, namely that “randomness” is not free will, and neither is determinism.
However, this seems like a too simplistic picture, which assumes that people are “point particles” with no internal state. That is, in a deterministic world, the assumption of no free will basically posits that the internal state, however deterministic, cannot be a source of free will. However, I would argue that this is indeed the source of free will, that is the internal state that constitutes “you”. You also state that you do not “choose” which thought occurs to you, it simply arrives. However, I would argue that this is not correct; that is, you are your thoughts, there is nothing else that is “choosing” your thoughts.
Perhaps what you mean is that “your” brain does not choose which thoughts come into view. However, I would argue that “you” are not your brain, but rather the thoughts that constitute your brain, ie. the software layer.
Perhaps a more concrete argument would help here: I claim that learning is impossible without free will. That is, if you cannot choose among a set of actions freely, there is nothing to learn, and thus nothing of value that humanity has ever created would be possible. This is the sense of free will that I am talking about. But perhaps you would argue that everything that humanity has created in a sense was already “determined”. But this determination was the result of a set of agents that collectively exercised their “free will” to generate the fruits of their labor.
In other words, free will is a subjective phenomenon, and only arises from an internal perspective. It is then clear that the “objective” world contains no free will, since by definition, the “objective” world ignores any subjectivity.
Going back to your “standard model” arguments against free will, it seems like the core problem here is the definition of “randomness”. But I would argue that it is in the “randomness” where the free will comes in: that is, when you have a possibility of many different outcomes, and a probability of choosing between any of an “equipotential” of outcomes, this constitutes the source of free will.
Again the word “randomness” is doing most of the work here, which leads to the second point of your comment, namely the connection to time itself and the question of why am I me and not you? You could extend this question to any “random” process, that is, why was this particular outcome “chosen” among a set of outcomes from a probability distribution? Note that this does not have to include the existence of other minds as you have commented previously. Even with a single mind that can make “choices” there is still the question of the non-algorithmic nature of randomness that is elusive, but seems to be a necessary component of the nature of time.
I would also argue that Einstein’s revelation that there is no global “now” actually has been understated substantially. That is, if there is no global “now” then what determines which “now” is in view? With a unified time picture, there is no question here: all persons experience the same now and thus everyone in a sense “exists” at the same “time”. This perhaps more than anything else that Einstein worked on highlights the essence of time itself and its non-algorithmic nature.
I didn’t want to derail this conversation into another free will debate, it wasn’t my main focus, so I will try to be “brief” on responding to your view on free will:
It seems that you subscribe to the “standard model” against free will, that is, either things are determined by external causes, and you have no free will, or they are random, in which that would also constitute the nullification of free will. I am not sure your 3 arguments are actually distinct; they basically point to the same source, namely that “randomness” is not free will, and neither is determinism.
However, this seems like a too simplistic picture, which assumes that people are “point particles” with no internal state. That is, in a deterministic world, the assumption of no free will basically posits that the internal state, however deterministic, cannot be a source of free will. However, I would argue that this is indeed the source of free will, that is the internal state that constitutes “you”. You also state that you do not “choose” which thought occurs to you, it simply arrives. However, I would argue that this is not correct; that is, you are your thoughts, there is nothing else that is “choosing” your thoughts.
Perhaps what you mean is that “your” brain does not choose which thoughts come into view. However, I would argue that “you” are not your brain, but rather the thoughts that constitute your brain, ie. the software layer.
Perhaps a more concrete argument would help here: I claim that learning is impossible without free will. That is, if you cannot choose among a set of actions freely, there is nothing to learn, and thus nothing of value that humanity has ever created would be possible. This is the sense of free will that I am talking about. But perhaps you would argue that everything that humanity has created in a sense was already “determined”. But this determination was the result of a set of agents that collectively exercised their “free will” to generate the fruits of their labor.
In other words, free will is a subjective phenomenon, and only arises from an internal perspective. It is then clear that the “objective” world contains no free will, since by definition, the “objective” world ignores any subjectivity.
Going back to your “standard model” arguments against free will, it seems like the core problem here is the definition of “randomness”. But I would argue that it is in the “randomness” where the free will comes in: that is, when you have a possibility of many different outcomes, and a probability of choosing between any of an “equipotential” of outcomes, this constitutes the source of free will.
Again the word “randomness” is doing most of the work here, which leads to the second point of your comment, namely the connection to time itself and the question of why am I me and not you? You could extend this question to any “random” process, that is, why was this particular outcome “chosen” among a set of outcomes from a probability distribution? Note that this does not have to include the existence of other minds as you have commented previously. Even with a single mind that can make “choices” there is still the question of the non-algorithmic nature of randomness that is elusive, but seems to be a necessary component of the nature of time.
I would also argue that Einstein’s revelation that there is no global “now” actually has been understated substantially. That is, if there is no global “now” then what determines which “now” is in view? With a unified time picture, there is no question here: all persons experience the same now and thus everyone in a sense “exists” at the same “time”. This perhaps more than anything else that Einstein worked on highlights the essence of time itself and its non-algorithmic nature.