Posted: Aug 05, 2019 4:20 pm
romansh wrote:GrahamH wrote:
I'm tempted to associate free will with liberty - experiencing a wide open space of possibilities with safe paths to take rather than a closed-in hard to navigate maze.
That's fine from a compatibilist point of view [I am not suggesting you are one]. If I were to use the phrase … this is how I might think of it too.
Nevertheless, we can ask are these safe path possibilities really available to us? I suspect the reason I entertain the idea of free will, is because by and large I am almost completely oblivious to the underlying mechanisms of decision making.
I'd say they are "available to us" in the sense thy are logically and physically possible, and we can grasp that possibility. I'd not say they are "available to us" in the "could have done otherwise" sense. We take the path take due to mainly untraceable influences that are not under conscious control. Indeed, I don't think conscious mind is in control of anything as such although I think "presenting events in consciousness" is an important function of the brain.