RogerSH wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 1:30 pm
“Incompatibilism” is the claim that free will is incompatible with a deterministic world.
The issue is not some concept of, "free will," a notion derived from religion, but, "volition," which means human behavior is determined by conscious choice.
In a determined universe there is no volition. Physical existence is determined. If physical existence is not determined, if every event that can be described by the physical sciences could possibly be anything other than what it is, the whole of the physical sciences is mistaken and miracles and magic must be allowed, because in an undetermined physical world just anything could happen.
But this discussion is absurd if there is no volition. If everything is determined, every bit of this discussion is nothing more than a string of predetermined physical events with no more meaning or purpose than a dead tree falling in the woods or the eruption of a volcano.
But no one here believes that. No one believes that what they are doing here is meaningless physical events, but being done by choice and with a purpose and a goal in mind. If everything is determined, however, that is not possible.
The mistake is in assuming the physical describes everything there is, but there is no basis for that assumption, and honest intellectual inquiry demands that all evidence be included in that inquiry. The evidence left out of the view that everything can be explained by the physical is life, particularly that kind of life that has discussions that it knows have meaning. The certainty of choice cannot be denied, because to deny it is a choice. It is self-contradictory.
The physicalist knows this is true, but in an attempt to explain everything in terms of the physical, corrupts the fundamental fact of the physical, that it must be determined or it cannot be known at all. There are various attempts by physicalists to find some escape from the ruthless determination of physical reality by resorting to quantum mechanics or other supposed undetermined aspects of the physical.
The irony is that volition is not possible if there is not a determined physical reality. Volition means choice which requires that the consequences of choice must be determined. Choice A must be known to result in consequence B else there is no basis for any choice. If there is no reliable way of knowing what the result of a chosen action will be, there is no way of choosing which action is preferable.
The physical behavior of every physical entity in the universe is determined by principles discovered by the physical sciences called the laws of physics and chemistry. A tiny number of physical entities have another natural property called life. All the physical aspects of those entities are determined by the laws of physics and chemistry, but that behavior of those enitities (called organisms), that maintains them as the kind of entities they are (called life), is not determined by the laws of physics and chemistry. An even tinier number of organisms have conscious minds which are also not determined by the laws of physics and chemistry, and those organisms are required by their nature to maintain their existence (survive) by conscious choice.
One must either assume that the physical aspects of the universe are absolutely determined or reject the possibility of any true knowledge of the universe and must either assume the universe includes some properties beyond the mere physical or reject the possibility of any true knowledge. Any other position is just a flat-out rejection of undeniable evidence.
