Posted: Aug 23, 2017 3:32 pm
Matthew Shute wrote:GrahamH wrote:predictability is not indicative of free will. Unpredictability is suggestive.
I agree with the former but not the latter. Unpredictability could just suggest that we can't account for all the variables and mechanisms and failure of mechanisms that may be at work. Or that there are so many of these, and so many complicated and open-ended interactions between them, that we can't practically and reliably calculate a result, no matter how much processing power we're able to throw at it. It's suggestive that humans aren't simple bots.
As you say,It's not possible to measure free will,
in part precisely because the degree of predictability doesn't tell us anything about it.
Hypothesis 1: person A has free will, but she freely chooses act according to an extremely predictable pattern.
Hypothesis 2: person B has no free will, but his behaviour is totally erratic and unpredictable.
The claim (that either person has/has no free will) is unfalsifiable, no? There's nothing to measure.
I agree with most of that. Predictability doesn't say anything about free will.
I don't suggest that being predictable shows a lack of free will, just that it doesn't provide any evidence for it.
As you say, there is nothing to measure.