🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <spurrett.22.720960371@superbowl.und.ac.za> spurrett@superbowl.und.ac.za (David Spurrett) writes:
>Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1992 13:03:12 GMT
>FREE WILL 1: Compatibilism sucks.

>  Compatibilism (the thesis  that free will  and determinism are  com-
>patible, ie. that  both can be  simultaneously true) is  crud.  If  we
>define determinism as:
>    
>    `The theory that the state of a system at some time and the  rela-
>  tions governing the  time development of  the system determine,  un-
>  ambiguously, the state of  the system at any  later time.  (In  time
>  reversal invariant theories,  the state of  the system at  some time
>  and the relations governing time  development give the state of  the
>  system at _any_ time.)'

This definition presupposes that "the state of a system at some time"
has meaning.  According to relativity, the notion of simultaneity is
dependent upon the observer.  Keep in mind that the "system" of concern
is the complete universe.  Given the meaninglessness of "at some time"
this definition is, at best, a convenient simplification, but it has no
real substance.

>  And further is we define voluntarism (the thesis that we have  `free
>will') as:
>    
>    `The theory that a person is free with respect to same act if they
>  both can perform it and refrain from performing it.'

In most cases, a person cannot "both" perform and refrain from performing,
since one often excludes the other.  Perhaps you should be using the
word "either".  But, in any case, the statement depends on the uncertain
semantics of "can".

>  The question, therefore, is _which_ of  the two is true.

This insistence on either/or, this belief in the existence of some
absolute truth, is at the heart of your problem.  There is no reason,
other than religious belief, to suppose that the real world works this
way.  Rather than asking for the absolute truth, you should be asking
about which is a useful interpretation of the available evidence.
Compatiblism maintains that determinism and free will are both useful
and compatible interpretations.