MonteChristo0321 OP t1_jboo2p8 wrote on March 10, 2023 at 3:36 PM

Reply to comment by MichiganRealty in I just published an article in The Journal of Mind and Behavior arguing that free will is real. Here is the PhilPapers link with free PDF. Tell me what you think. by MonteChristo0321

I didn't have sight before I was born, but now I do.

I didn't have free will before I was born, but now I do.

I choose to be here every day.

MichiganRealty t1_jborvub wrote on March 10, 2023 at 4:01 PM

So you’re making a faith based argument. You don’t know that you didn’t have free will before you were born - and now you don’t, anymore than, you don’t know that you didn’t have free will before you were born - and now you do.

What IS known is one day you were here - however the means. That’s all you can say definitively - that is true. With that foundation, it’s more of a foundation of something based in determination than one’s choice to be here.

The experiential aspect of thinking you’re choosing to be here rather than offing yourself might be free will, but it’s also equally likely to be deterministic.
Did you get to choose to be in a body that gets chronically depressed?

Two things are true, you’re born and you die, and these are determined experiences that you can’t run away from or use free will to avoid. If this beginning and end of one’s life is determined and destined to happen, however and whenever, than it’s seems unreasonable to believe (because it’s a belief) that you’re in control of the experience of life.

MonteChristo0321 OP t1_jbou1oh wrote on March 10, 2023 at 4:15 PM

There's several things I disagree with here, but I'll only mention one because I have to go to work.

You're equivocating between all of my potential deaths as if they're all the same event. I can choose a lot of actions that lead to different deaths. So what if I can't choose to never die? I can't choose to fly like Superman either. No one thinking about free will ever thought I could.

MichiganRealty t1_jboxiia wrote on March 10, 2023 at 4:38 PM

And I’m saying that while you THINK you may be able to choose your death, however that may be, death is a guarantee for you… that isn’t subject to free will… Your beginning and your end are factually guaranteed, determined outcomes, however or whenever. To suggest the experiential aspect in the middle is free will, is also to suggest that you have a choice in the matter of your beginning and your end - but your death is guaranteed, and a determined outcome - no matter what you THINK you can do about it.