Philosophy Now Forum

If the determined universe unfolds in such a way that there is consciousness, ... I love it when someone explains things in these terms that mean nothing, like, "unfolds in such a way." It's like those who try to claim consciousness, "just emerges form the chemical electrical behavio...

All statistics depend on some degree of ignorance. Determinism is the case whether anyone knows what the actual case is or not. In the physical realm there is no possibility of any event being other than what it is--not sums of events, but individual events. The only reason in statistics different ...

Here is a more formal recap of the argument suggested by the Meccano model. Purely for the sake of argument, I will assume the following:- A1. Nothing exists but the physical world A2. In particular, the mind is a manifestation of physical events, and its state is hence part of the state of the worl...

...no act of will can be free of your self, your volition, your experience, and your current situation. There is no outside space you can escape to to make a decision that is beyond the cause of what and who you are. Indeed not, but that is true irrespective of determinism. Only a person in such an...

Huh?? It seems like you're equivocating what "the world" refers to there--like it keeps shifting. I could have worded that better. B is everything that is in the world except what is included in A. I call it "the external world" as a shorthand, but that bothers you because it is...

Yes, B is not fully determined for choice to be possible. For example, the world is ( ex hypothesi ) fully determined, but the mind ( A ) is part of the world, so B is the world with A excluded, which is not necessarily fully determined just because [ A+B ] is. Huh?? It seems like you're equivocati...

“Incompatibilism” is the claim that free will is incompatible with a deterministic world.... You cannot use a model to prove a case. All you are doing is using a model to describe a what you think is the case. I certainly don't think the world is as simple as this! If a principle is alleged to be t...

“Incompatibilism” is the claim that free will is incompatible with a deterministic world. Take four similar Meccano strips (or equivalent) and bolt them loosely together at their ends to form a rhombus. Bolt a fifth strip between two of the opposite corners. The resulting assembly has no degrees of...

I did have a quick browse so can at least answer that question! https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-01947-0_33 or https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/robotica/article/abs/on-numerical-techniques-for-kinematics-problems-of-general-seriallink-robot-manipulators/6E7A7A5A362C6573D...

[Speaking generally] I don’t see that a string of ex cathedra assertions constitutes a very useful contribution to the PN forum, however tempting that practice is. Trying to understand each other’s premises and vocabulary seems more useful, so I will continue with that. When I have another bit of fr...

No changes except the passage of time! That's surely quite a familiar concept? It might be something people say and think makes sense, but it's incoherent. Again, time is IDENTICAL to change. If there are no changes, there is no time. Something has to be changing in order for there to be time. Time...

You might like to think of "intention" as metaphorical, but to be more literal, if the unconscious choosing system A has a model of the world What would it mean to say that something unconscious "has a model of the world"? An 'intelligent' thermostat might well have a mathematic...

“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 ...

I'm afraid I use the jargon of mechanical science, my background. An underdetermined mechanical system . . . Okay, but can you point to a scientific usage of "underdetermined" in the way you're using it? I'm not familiar with it being used in the context of anything but theorizing in the ...

And even more interesting is how consciousness works – which I think is extremely poorly modelled by structurally shallow concepts like “intentional influence and/or goal-directedness” (though of course they can play a part). That's what will is characterized by. Not consciousness overall. "Wi...