Free Will
Oedipus: there is no escaping fate.
Libertarian Free Will: the belief that some human actions are freely chosen.
Hard Determinism: the belief that all events are caused by past events such that nothing other than what does occur could occur.
Principle of alternate possibility: an action is free only if the agent could have done otherwise.
It is ALL about options.
Event Causation: No physical event can occur without have been caused by a previous physical event.
Agent Causation: An agent, — a being propelled by a mind — can start a whole chain of causality that wasn’t caused by anything else.
Baron D’Holbach says:
Everything, is the inevitable result of what came before, including everything that we do.
Reductionism: all parts of the world, and of our own experience, and be traced back – or reduced down to — one single thing.
Belief + Desire + Temperament = Action.Compatibilism, aka Soft Determinism: if the action of an agent is self-determined, or determined by causes internal to themself, the action should be considered free.
Harry Frankfort challenged the principle of alternate possibility with Frankfort Cases: the agent is morally responsible for things he does even when he couldn’t have done otherwise.
Patricia Churchland pointed out the degree of freeness was determined the ratio of internal vs. external factors. A better question would be “How much control do I have?”
Feeling Free = Take Control