Still, your original description of the scenario was
you have a light attached to your head. If it blinks red, it’ll make you feel happy, but it’ll blow up in an hour. It’s not linked to the rest of your brain at all.
Now you have changed the “happy” feeling into a “decided” feeling. So the bulb has to be connected somehow to the brain to stimulate the feeling. I am not sure what “rest” refers to here.
But in general, if somebody said they decided freely, I take it as given. I don’t know any better criterion how to judge whether the decision was free, whatever it means.
I meant: it’s not connected to your brain at all except when making you happy/making you believe you decided.
ie. it’s not taking any input from the brain at any point. Much like the lesion.
But in general, if somebody said they decided freely, I take it as given. I don’t know any better criterion how to judge whether the decision was free, whatever it means.
In the specific case of the bulb-world, would you consider their decisions free, if they did?
If the bulb-apparatus physically took no input from the brain, if it was attached to the brain artificially (as opposed from being a native part of human body, or growing spontaneously—so that it couldn’t be considered a part of the brain), if its action was direct enough (e.g. implanting the decision by some sequence of electric impulses in course of seconds, as opposed to altering the brain only in a slight, but predictable manner, which modification would develop into the final decision after years of thought going inside the brain) and if the decision made by the bulb could be disentangled from other processes in the brain, then I certainly would not call the decision free. If only some of the above conditions were satisfied, then it would be hard to decide whether to use the word free or not.
I suspect we have unknowingly changed the topic into investigation of the meaning of “free”.
What is the lightbulb world?
The world I described, with the red, blinking, exploding, light; that makes you think you chose to have it blink.
For a second there I thought I’d somehow confused the conversations, but no, you are the one I’ve been discussing that with.
I’m sorry for being stupid.
Still, your original description of the scenario was
Now you have changed the “happy” feeling into a “decided” feeling. So the bulb has to be connected somehow to the brain to stimulate the feeling. I am not sure what “rest” refers to here.
But in general, if somebody said they decided freely, I take it as given. I don’t know any better criterion how to judge whether the decision was free, whatever it means.
It’s my mistake.
I meant: it’s not connected to your brain at all except when making you happy/making you believe you decided.
ie. it’s not taking any input from the brain at any point. Much like the lesion.
In the specific case of the bulb-world, would you consider their decisions free, if they did?
If the bulb-apparatus physically took no input from the brain, if it was attached to the brain artificially (as opposed from being a native part of human body, or growing spontaneously—so that it couldn’t be considered a part of the brain), if its action was direct enough (e.g. implanting the decision by some sequence of electric impulses in course of seconds, as opposed to altering the brain only in a slight, but predictable manner, which modification would develop into the final decision after years of thought going inside the brain) and if the decision made by the bulb could be disentangled from other processes in the brain, then I certainly would not call the decision free. If only some of the above conditions were satisfied, then it would be hard to decide whether to use the word free or not.
I suspect we have unknowingly changed the topic into investigation of the meaning of “free”.