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Post by PanLeo on Jun 12, 2017 20:33:17 GMT
Do you ingest water before drinking it? Do you put on clothes before getting dressed? The thoughts play a part in making a choice. Free will is the (perceived) ability to make choices. I have it, which I demonstrated here by choosing to reply to your post before having read the entire thread. The compatibilist definition is only the perceived ability to make choices, but the compatibilist also believes that there is only one possible choice for each scenario. Given that the full chain of causality leading up to that choice (and which will determine our decision in that moment) is opaque to us, we have the illusion that there are many different paths that we can take, and that the final decision springs forth from our will. But if we can't direct our thought processes before having the thoughts, then we are effectively only witnessing the decisions that our brain is predetermined to make (or makes randomly through some kind of quantum physics incoherency). We aren't directing our will at all, because in order to do so we would need to have an even more fundamental will with which to direct our will. There is no empirical evidence that if you wind back the clock ten minute everything will turn out the same so how can you say such a thing?
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