Thursday, January 04, 2007

Free Will

My take: Either we have at least partial free will, or we do not. If we do not have free will, our beliefs about free will are determined by fate--that is, either the deterministic playing out of the laws of physics or of quantum chance--and we have no influence over them. (If we had any influence over our beliefs about free will, that implies we have at least partial free will.) Therefore, the only case in which our beliefs about free will can influence our actions is the case in which we have at least partial free will. If we have at least partial free will, choosing to believe that we have free will is a more accurate model of the universe than is choosing to believe that we do not have free will. Therefore, I believe we have free will.

I might, in fact, not have free will, but in that case what I believe is not under my control.

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