Wee Frill

Just because a defined (and definable) series of events led to an action, does not mean that free will was not exercised or not present. It also doesn’t mean that free will was present. In this universe at the macro level at least, it tends to be causative agents all the way back. That says nothing about free will, but rather that time exists.

I believe this all stems from is a problem with our definition and understanding of “free will,” rather than telling us anything about will qua will at all, free or otherwise. The common definition of “free will” is “can do anything at any time.” But not even Superman1 can do that. For all his power, he is still constrained by his physical location, his past decisions, his still-limited attention span, the fact that he does not possess infinite intelligence, or that he might get tangled in his cape, etc.

There is no complete definition of free will, but the colloquial understanding of that it is just some ill-defined ability to make any decision or to take any action at any time seems to be more limiting than the alternative to me. I don’t have a complete answer, either, though I am quite sure the colloquial understanding of this all is very wrong. If I had to attempt to pin myself down on this intellectually, I’d say that I am Compatibilist, though I don’t quite hew to any of the existing Compatibilist positions. I have my own thing going there. But it’d take far too long to write about and would in fact be quite a bit more involved than the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on that topic itself.

So, another time then.

  1. Yes, the dual meaning with Nietzsche is deliberate.

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