bencip19 writes:
Can science really resolve the notion of free will with that of the biological reduction of "self" ?
As for my own position, I think the answer is, there is no resolving them; free will is only apparent.
One way of resolving free will with "the biological reduction of "self"" might be that not only free will, but also the notion of self is only apparent (i.e. an illusion). That way, there is no need for a correlation between the two.
bencip19 writes:
There is one [thought] in particular I thought I should mention--the position [...] that believes that non-determinism in quantum mechanics somehow saves the notion of free will.
There's a problem with that line of thinking. It is this: to have free will necessitates having control over the processes that constitute, or cause, a willed event.
Determinism, on the one hand, obviously precludes free will, in that it prescribes that every effect must have a cause, and thus implies that the chain of causes and effect extends infinitely into the past, or at least as far back as before our own existence. Since we cannot have control over causes that occur before we exist, we cannot possibly have control, in a deterministic universe, over subsequent causes and effects in the chain leading up to the final cause (in the everyday sense of the word 'final', not to be confused with the aristotelian notion of 'final cause') of a willed event.
The non-determinacy of quantum mechanics, on the other hand, offers no solace because a non-determined event cannot, by definition, be controlled by anything. So, if quantum mechanical principles lie at the root of processes that cause willed events, we still cannot have control over those processes, and free will remains an elusive concept.
This message has been edited by Parasomnium, 12-22-2004 05:52 AM
We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
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