Posted: Oct 07, 2017 8:30 am
John Platko wrote:
By freely choosing to act, not making myself act. There may even be an element of surprise in the choice I freely make. (although I'm feeling like I'm going a bit out on a limb now)
What are the alternatives, that someone else made you act or that circumstances compelled you or that your action was just a random surprise?
Coercion isn't freedom.And we can rule out random surprise - I'm not free if I turn my will over to dice.
If free will means anything at all it surely means that I make myself do things.
Have you considered the possibility that making yourself do things is like making you the warden of your own prison. Where's the freedom in that?
I think there must be a minor semantic confusion there. I cant see how you could support free will and yet say that you did not make your arm move in deciding to lift your arm. If your arm lifted and it seemed to you that you did not make it move willfully you would probably get yourself checked out by a doctor and wouldn't be parading our wandering arm as an example of free will.
"warden of your own prison"? Is that "will power"?