Philosophy Now Forum

QM events do not occur in everyday circumstances. My keyboard is still just one keyboard, and I fully expect it will ignore QM uncertainty and not spontaneously generate a bowl of petunias by the morning. Billiard balls pretty much act the way they are expected to, and people pretty much follow the...

The belief in real physical possibilities - or at least a belief in their possibility- must come first. But if reality is not like that, where does this belief come from? Is seems like such a basic concept - like time and space - without which it would be impossible to think at all. It is a basic c...

Surely an ability to imagine alternative actions presupposes a belief in real physical alternatives? I can’t really comprehend how imagining alternative actions could be done without such a belief. Of course there is belief. But belief exists in the realm of imagination, just like the notion of fre...

Why is not random chance the same as free will? If your supposedly free will is determined by forces beyond your control, then how can it actually be free will? Random chance is as much beyond your control as predestination. If I AM the force that is acting randomly, there is nothing beyond me cont...

This will be determined by your previous experience with that person. It is never arbitary A lot of responses, but I get the impression they all derive from the claim that a purely random event - and therefore a purely arbitrary action is impossible. I would agree with you that if this were the cas...

Once you're on the train, there is no way for you to know if you actually could have gone by car instead. That alternative only ever existed in your imagination. I like your explanation of why we believe in free will, although I am not convinced. I agree that imagining two or more alternative actio...

What you describe is an abnegation of your will. If any act is truly random - which I doubt - then in what way are you expressing your will on the matter at hand? Free and will are contradictions. It is not possible to have any kind of a will unless it is enacted upon in the spirit and the letter o...

Notvacka wrote: What you experienced as free will could possibly have been predetermination (as suggested by the theory of relativity) or random chance (as suggested by quantum physics). Why is not random chance the same as free will? The only time I consider myself as having a free will are those ...

And how does this relate to ethics and morality? Ethics and morality are important things that exist in a meaningful way in our imagination. The fact that they, like free will, don't correspond to anything in physical reality doesn't matter. Because, again (I'm a stubborn bastard, aint I?) we do't ...

Rebecca Massey-Chase said: "I hope that those advocating free will agree that we make choices for reasons, or their definition of free will must then entail arbitrary decisions" I am puzzled by this presumption, especially because it is precisely because I can make arbitrary decisions that...