Posted: Oct 06, 2017 10:03 pm
romansh wrote:John Platko wrote:
By freely choosing to act, not making myself act.
For me free (in the context of free will) would mean to have a will to do a behaviour (cogitated or otherwise) that is somehow independent of cause. This is a philosophical question and not to be confused with common legal conceptions of free will.
I find the philosophy of cause to be a real
There are just so many different points of view on cause and types of cause. And I certainly don't think physics has a handle on it. Physics says things like an effect can't occur from a cause that is not in the past light cone of that event but I know for a fact that future events are effecting my current choices all the time. Even imagined events sometimes effect current choices. Physics seems to be completely unable to handle cases like this.
Once we have established how my will (desires wants wishes etc) is independent of cause then perhaps we can focus on how we move from will to cogitation, then choice and eventually action ... and pointing out where in each step that might be free of prior cause.
This is going to be a very long thread.