I don’t think it’s always useful to think of free will as a “capacity to make choices in which the outcome has not been determined by past events” (wikipedia).
That’s not the only definition. That’s the definition of libertatian free will.
I’m not even sure that definition makes any sense, actually. To me, at least, it doesn’t feel like I make decisions without referring to my memories, which were laid into my mind by my past experiences.
You are reading ”...has not been determined by past events” as though it means “entirely unconnected to previous events”. It doesn’t mean that.
Rather, I think it’s (at least sometimes) more useful to reframe free will as how it feels to be inside a system that …
Free will is a way to model how a mind can feel like it works from the inside
You start off by saying that this approach is “sometimes” “useful” and then switch to treating it as stone cold fact.
Taking a step back ,
1 we are basically always at map level, because ,even in physics, we have to use simplifications. We can’t model things at the quark level.
2 we can’t regard map level features as false just because they are map level features. So claims like “free will is a map level feature” don’t disprove free will.
3 defining free will as an illusory feeling doesn’t prove or disprove it either, since other people use other definitions.
That’s not the only definition. That’s the definition of libertatian free will.
You are reading ”...has not been determined by past events” as though it means “entirely unconnected to previous events”. It doesn’t mean that.
You start off by saying that this approach is “sometimes” “useful” and then switch to treating it as stone cold fact.
Taking a step back ,
1 we are basically always at map level, because ,even in physics, we have to use simplifications. We can’t model things at the quark level.
2 we can’t regard map level features as false just because they are map level features. So claims like “free will is a map level feature” don’t disprove free will.
3 defining free will as an illusory feeling doesn’t prove or disprove it either, since other people use other definitions.