(no subject)
free will isn't an illusion, its just not free
-Daniel Dennett
naw. for real though, i got through his whole book and the thing seemed to say- speaking of "free will" from the perspective of an omniscient being is pointless (we are not omniscient) so even if we are determined to do everything we do, we can't *know* that. furthermore, even if our decision making process contained some measure of indeterminacy our lives would appear just the same as they do now. (he makes a really good argument for this imo). and yet...i somehow feel cheated.
the original question is- do we have free will or do we just *think* we do? and he seems to say the thinking we do *is* free will. and then gets butthurt when people say he denies free will lol.
you can redefine free will as the impression of having free will if you want, but... seems more like a trick than real analysis. then again, "free will" as some kind of completely uncaused, magical ability to act, moral levatation as he calls it, makes even less sense.
its just weird, thinking that from the moment of the big bang, i was in a way "determined" to do this (if physical determinism is true). then you have quantum weirdness, which apparently is probabilistic rather than deterministic... though i wonder if that is actually the way it works or if its an artifact of our trying to measure things on that scale. i keep meaning to ask a physicist. but i don't know any :(
DAMN YOU CRUEL WORLD
-Daniel Dennett
naw. for real though, i got through his whole book and the thing seemed to say- speaking of "free will" from the perspective of an omniscient being is pointless (we are not omniscient) so even if we are determined to do everything we do, we can't *know* that. furthermore, even if our decision making process contained some measure of indeterminacy our lives would appear just the same as they do now. (he makes a really good argument for this imo). and yet...i somehow feel cheated.
the original question is- do we have free will or do we just *think* we do? and he seems to say the thinking we do *is* free will. and then gets butthurt when people say he denies free will lol.
you can redefine free will as the impression of having free will if you want, but... seems more like a trick than real analysis. then again, "free will" as some kind of completely uncaused, magical ability to act, moral levatation as he calls it, makes even less sense.
its just weird, thinking that from the moment of the big bang, i was in a way "determined" to do this (if physical determinism is true). then you have quantum weirdness, which apparently is probabilistic rather than deterministic... though i wonder if that is actually the way it works or if its an artifact of our trying to measure things on that scale. i keep meaning to ask a physicist. but i don't know any :(
DAMN YOU CRUEL WORLD