Free will is a controversial, confusing term that, I suspect, different people take to mean different things.
Different definitions of free will require freedom from different things. Much of the debate centres on Libertarian free will, which requires freedom from causal determinism. Compatibilist free will requires freedom from deliberate restrictions by other free agents. Contra causal free will requires freedom from physics, on the assumption that physics is deterministic.
Libertarian free will is very much the definition that is relevant to Newcomb.If you could make an undetermined choice, in defiance of the oracles predictive abilities, you could get the extra money—but if you can make undetermined choices, how can the predictor predict you?
I agree that some notions of free will imply that Newcomb’s problem is impossible to set up. But if one of these notion is what is meant, then the premise of Newcomb’s problem is that these notions are false, right?
It also happens that I disagree with these notions as being relevant to what free will is.
Anyway, if this had been discussed in the original post, I wouldn’t have complained.
I agree that some notions of free will imply that Newcomb’s problem is impossible to set up. But if one of these notion is what is meant, then the premise of Newcomb’s problem is that these notions are false, right?
Different definitions of free will require freedom from different things. Much of the debate centres on Libertarian free will, which requires freedom from causal determinism. Compatibilist free will requires freedom from deliberate restrictions by other free agents. Contra causal free will requires freedom from physics, on the assumption that physics is deterministic.
Libertarian free will is very much the definition that is relevant to Newcomb.If you could make an undetermined choice, in defiance of the oracles predictive abilities, you could get the extra money—but if you can make undetermined choices, how can the predictor predict you?
I agree that some notions of free will imply that Newcomb’s problem is impossible to set up. But if one of these notion is what is meant, then the premise of Newcomb’s problem is that these notions are false, right?
It also happens that I disagree with these notions as being relevant to what free will is.
Anyway, if this had been discussed in the original post, I wouldn’t have complained.
It’s advertised as being a paradox, not a proof.