Posted: Apr 08, 2022 8:00 pm
scott1328 wrote:
I think Theory of Mind is a fine topic and worthy of discussion.
But I would not attribute "Free Will" to anything because it is a label much like the "God" label; without referent, without a coherent definition, and having no utility.
I agree on both points, and would further add: ToM isn't coherently related to Free Will.
Whether Free Will is a real quantity or not, we could still engage in mind theorizing.
In fact, if Free Will is not a real quantity, one might expect our mind theorizing to be spectacularly accurate as all behaviors and choices a human made would be absent individuality but instead directly dependent on prior events and these could plausibly be known completely.
If Free Will is a real quantity, we could still theorize about minds based referentially on prior experiences, our familiarity with that person, and the linguistic landscape we occupy.
But I expect that's just a problem with the concept of 'Free Will'.