I was going to answer—well, I guess I still will, that free will is hopeless even in an undeterministic universe because either actions have a cause and they’re determined or they don’t, in which case they’re not caused (not even by you) so they’re still not ‘free’ in the sense of chosen—and then I read in the linked essay that this is a misconception.
Now on to the misconception of the anti-free will camp. I’ve often heard the argument which says that not only is there no free will, but the very concept of free will is incoherent. Why? Because either our actions are determined by something, or else they’re not determined by anything, in which case they’re random. In neither case can we ascribe them to “free will.”
I don’t see yet that this is a misconception… for example, I disagree with this:
For me, the glaring fallacy in the argument lies in the implication Not Determined ⇒ Random. If that was correct, then we couldn’t have complexity classes like NP—we could only have BPP. The word “random” means something specific: it means you have a probability distribution over the possible choices.
Actually, the word “random” means a few things. One of these meanings is “not determined” (not caused, spontaneous). So Not Determined --> Random is definitional. And then the argument makes sense to me. (If it’s not determined, then it’s not determined by you.)
I was going to answer—well, I guess I still will, that free will is hopeless even in an undeterministic universe because either actions have a cause and they’re determined or they don’t, in which case they’re not caused (not even by you) so they’re still not ‘free’ in the sense of chosen—and then I read in the linked essay that this is a misconception.
I don’t see yet that this is a misconception… for example, I disagree with this:
Actually, the word “random” means a few things. One of these meanings is “not determined” (not caused, spontaneous). So Not Determined --> Random is definitional. And then the argument makes sense to me. (If it’s not determined, then it’s not determined by you.)
That was one of the things that bothered me too, when I was reading it. One of many...