On Tue, Jul 8, 2025 at 1:47 AM Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote:
*>>> So in all that time you have never learnt how to use a Google search >>> on the word "compatibilism"?* >> >> *>> To humor you I just asked Google about and it said it said >> compatibilism "suggests that our actions can be both caused by prior events >> (determinism) and still be considered free". So just as I suspected, that >> definition is neither coherent nor useful. * > > > *> It's perfectly coherent. * > *Perfectly? * * > Actions that are determined by one's brain making a choice* > *Y**our brain made that choice for a reason and was therefore deterministicm OR your brain made that choice for no reason whatsoever and was therefore random. What room does that leave for this "free will" business? * > *> that is not coerce can be considered free (free of coercion)* > *None of your actions are entirely free of coercion, that's why you can't always do what you want, like walk through walls or jump over a mountain. * > *>The word “free” is not incoherent. I’m sure you understand what people > mean when they use it in everyday conversation.* *Sure, and if I'm building a dog house I don't need to take General Relativity or Quantum Mechanics into account. W**hen discussing philosophy one needs to be much more careful than you are in everyday conversation because there are things that are taken for granted and cause no problems in common usage that can hide a philosophical minefield. * *>> C**ompatibilists have not changed my opinion that **"free will" is best >> defined as a noise that some people like to make with their mouth, or as >> the inability to know what the results of a calculation will be until the >> calculation is finished. Although neither definition is useful, both are at >> least coherent.* > > > *> What does the inability to know the result of a calculation before it > is finished have to do with wilful acts.* > *I'm very surprised you would ask such a question. I thought you knew that all actions, wilful or otherwise, can be simulated by a calculation made by a Turing Machine. * *John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv1zS0h3msXpO928iTOpB2Ogvz_9ruFmYXoFfzXqev-LQA%40mail.gmail.com.
