I guess my request of philosophers (and the rest of us) is this: when you are using an every day term like “free will” or “consciousness”, please don’t define it to mean one very specific thing that bakes in a bunch of philosophical assumptions. Because then anyone who questions some of those assumptions ends up arguing whether the thing exists. Rather than just saying it’s a little different than we thought before.
It’d be like if we couldn’t talk about “space” or “time” anymore after Einstein. Or if half of us started calling ourselves “illusionists” w.r.t. space or time. They’re not illusions! They exist! They’re just a little different than we thought before.
(See also this comment, and remember that all abstractions are leaky!)
I guess my request of philosophers (and the rest of us) is this: when you are using an every day term like “free will” or “consciousness”, please don’t define it to mean one very specific thing that bakes in a bunch of philosophical assumptions. Because then anyone who questions some of those assumptions ends up arguing whether the thing exists. Rather than just saying it’s a little different than we thought before.
It’d be like if we couldn’t talk about “space” or “time” anymore after Einstein. Or if half of us started calling ourselves “illusionists” w.r.t. space or time. They’re not illusions! They exist! They’re just a little different than we thought before.
(See also this comment, and remember that all abstractions are leaky!)