Philosophy Now Forum

Our decisions are either because of a reason or not. We are free in the second case and not in the first case. There is a context where that is true, but doesn't look like the context I am talking about. This is why establishing some common language frist is paramount. OK, I understand your point. ...

I'm not sure what you can mean by "depend on identity. " It seems to me that "identity" has to do with the particular thing that one is...do you mean instead "consciousness"? Or "personality," perhaps? By identity I mean that it includes personality, includes...

I'm confused, uncertain what you think on the subject. Please, clarify for me: do you (believe you) have free will? I believe we have insufficient information, wrong definition, and deep semantic problem, all of which prevents me to actually form an opinion. I am undecided, but I can argue for both...

For a person that is trying to convince us that free will doesn't exist, you sure spout a lot of obvious fiction. I'm not saying we have no free will, rather that is impossible for there to be two states, and is still not clear that one single state can be called 'free' or not. In other words, lack...

Only a Determinist would have to assume they'd have do the same thing. And if they did not, it would devastate any argument for Determinism. But the problem is that your "experiment" cannot be done, so it's all speculation. It is thought experiment. Speculation is conclusion drawn from it...

I guess in a world with free will, most people with a self-aware ego could wipe out the rest of the world simply by willing it. Wow, psychokinesis! And I have to agree. The mechanism required for that downward causation, that ability for mind to have output interaction with atoms and molecules of o...

You've been fooled by Xeno's paradox there. You're treating a continuum as if it were discrete moments in time...in geometric terms, you're treating a "ray" as if it were a "broken line." The problem is looking at "who you are" being a "point in time." Gotcha...

It seems I was not clear enough. I am not saying we have or not have free will, my conclusion is there actually might not exist satisfactory answer. I am saying definition of free will as 'ability to choose otherwise' is wrong, but first let me try to focus discussion on a single statement: If we li...

Imagine something is wrong with your body and we have to transfer your mind to another body, another brain. We make two of new you and to test them we send them to the past. First one behaves exactly as you did, the other acts differently. Does that mean the second one have free will, or something w...