Do I have a choice? (determinism vs libertarianism vs compatibilism)

With you so far...although, if our actions are a product of the interplay of our individual natures and our environment, broadly speaking, it is difficult to put my finger on what portions we control.As I used to say in reply to my father's plaint, "What's wrong with you, kid?":"I dunno, Pop, what do you think--heredity or environment?"He really hated that. Aren't you assuming your conclusion here, and shifting terms a bit in substituting "caused" for "determined"? Responsible or not, we can be links in a causal chain, but "determined by us" suggests free agency.Like the biochemical and developmental factors that determine my taste for vanilla ice cream, do not all my actions and inactions have causes of similar types? In constructing an ethics of responsibility, how and at what point does one become an agent of primary causation? In other words, what is the "bootstrap" mechanism that lifts a product of nature and nurture into free, and thus responsible, agency?Had you said, "If they are partly determined by us..." I could go along with that, too. But that's a big if to leave out.

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Hi again, nwr. You think with great clarity, and I hope to profit from it. Okay. Never mind that, then.The essential bone I was worrying in my reply was your assumption of intentional behavior; my essential objection can perhaps be best illustrated by my "bootstrap" question.Take my brother. Please.He's insane.Perhaps he became a paranoid schizophrenic at 17 due to infectious agents from the cats my mother always favored; perhaps because my mother was first-trimester pregnant during the influenza pandemic of 1957; perhaps my father's aging sperm was responsible; perhaps all those things plus my father's schizotypal genetic load, perhaps that and those and more.Who would assert that he possessed free will when he emerged, not yet ill, from the womb? We commonly grant that small children lack moral comprehension and responsibility. But, at some point before his disease erupted, common wisdom (and law) holds that he became morally responsible for his actions. Then later, ill, he became not responsible for his actions: yet the causes of both the responsible and the not-responsible periods of his lfe were not materially different--genetics, epigenetics, environment, etc.--from yours or mine.How did he--or any of us--change from a pure product of genes and circumstance to a freely intentional actor? The infant wasn't accountable, the toddler wasn't accountable, the...what? when?...became accountable.How? What is the mechanism of our moral liberation/enchainment? There seems to be a gulf between the bald contingency of our origins and moral responsibility. That is the "bootstrap" moment--the POST of free agency--that I am seeking.Surely my little brother did not will his illness or choose to stab my father. Yes, I know I am speaking of an outlier case, someone even the law might absolve of moral responsibility: yet I cannot find logic to support the notion that his contingencies were more or less...contingent...than yours or mine.It seems to me that philosphical defenses of free will have abandoned the field by adopting truncated definitions: free will is an unconstrained will; free will is an unpredictable will. This is pale stuff.In the sense that we most commonly understand free will, I think it can be claimed only as an article of faith, a bit of magic, a subjective preference more allied to theology than philosophy or reason: free will is the creationism of moral philosphy.

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Thanks, nwr. That was a thoughtful reply.I'll sleep on it and respond tomorrow.

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Thanks for the excellent reply--it truly is POTM worthy.But you won't be surprised to hear that I have reservations about typifying the developmental process as self-redesign. The genetic, epigenetic, and environmental processes that dynamically mold the individual are not chosen; the crying infant chose nothing, neither the circumstances of its hunger nor its wailing response: all inputs into the process are givens, and the hungry infant cries because the environment has created an internal state that elicits a hard-wired response.The dynamic response of the developing child is structured around survival, not responsibility or freedom: our evolutionary path has made that development and structure complex and social, which is why moral responsibility (perhaps the quintessential social norm) is such a useful concept. Socially defined rules of moral responsibility provide another set of modifying stimuli: whether a person is truly free or thoroughly determined, their responses are modified by well-established codes of consequence.Again, I see no sign of choice in these matters, since both individual development and social behaviors have evolved under the aegis of survival, not responsibility per se. Indeed, the degree to which social norms and mores determine an individual's actions in specific circumstances is one of the stronger arguments for determinism: Mr. Taliban, meet Mr. Quaker.As to the insane--yes, the process can go awry in ways even the strictest moral philospher could not charge to the individual, producing, say, a psychosis; but also possibly producing merely a maladjustment, a nervous tic, an inability to postpone gratification for greater long-term gain. The distinction between the insane and the rest of us is relative, not absolute: we are all flawed creatures, and the boundaries between being held accountable and not seem blurry and arbitrary.I think you have described the process of the development of a sense of moral responsibility quite well, and I agree that most "normal" people develop that sense. But I still cannot identify the when, why, or how of the moment (or process) in which a creature, born "alone and afraid in a world I never made" achieves sufficient remove from the chains of causality to be considered an authentically free agent.Having said all that, I'll show the rest of my cards: I believe I do possess free will, and not just by virtue of being unpredictable or unconstrained, but the 800 lb. gorilla variety: I believe that is the hallmark of consciousness-as-we-know-it. I believe I can identify and ponder the forces that make me likely to be, say, an abusive parent or a suicidal depressive, and, somewhere in the shadow theater of memory and desire, sight and reflection, choose another path. I can find myself in a dark wood, resolve to find my way out, and slog through a good deal of hell to get there. I suppose that makes me a turbo-charged ameliorist.Consciousness can always take another step back in its perspective--watching itself watching the movie--mirrors of near-infinite regression that, perhaps, somehow attenuate the grip of causality.I can't justify this belief in my freedom by logic or reason, but nonetheless have no doubts on the matter. Perhaps that's what makes me, after all the postmodern irony and survivor guilt falls away, a romantic. Perhaps the attempt to reason out the mystery of freedom and will is, as has been said of other such mysteries, like building a fire in a wooden stove.NB: Yes, the moral responsibility of a designer would make a lovely topic for Creationist studies. Edited by Omnivorous, : typOh

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Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love at any time, madam, is all that distinguishes us from the other animals.-Pierre De Beaumarchais (1732-1799) Save lives! Click here!
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