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Philosophy

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  • Good points. We do believe we possess free will, it's the norm as you say. The responses against that is too obvious to state; someone as learned as you would know. Much obliged. Commented Dec 31, 2022 at 8:35
  • Surely it's about the incoherence of 'unphysical', as per Elizabeth of Bohemia's critique of Cartesian Dualism. Commented Dec 31, 2022 at 15:02
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    @AgentSmith: Often it's useful to state things that are 'too obvious to state'; resting on unspoken truths is problematic. But since I imagine you're critiquing the unreliability of perceptual norms, I'll point out the un-obvious fact that perceptual norms are all we have to work with. Take the obvious examples of the earth seeming flat and the sun seeming to rise in the East. Prior to advances in modern physics, one would be a fool not to believe these perceptions were true; with modern physics one is a fool not to believe these perceptions are false. Commented Dec 31, 2022 at 15:31
  • @AgentSmith: But this isn't magic. Modern physics gave us new ways to perceive: new observations we can make that show us our earlier (more natural) perceptions are incorrect. We don't believe the Earth is spherical just because; we believe the Earth is spherical because we observe the results of physical experiments that could not occur if the Earth were flat. If/when physics gives us observations that put the lie to free will, we will be foolish to believe in free will. But it hasn't come close to doing that yet, not by a long shot, so we'd be fools not to believe in free will. Commented Dec 31, 2022 at 15:39
  • @CriglCragl: Mwah-ha, I haven't thought about Elizabeth of Bohemia in a dog's age; but yes, that's a nice way of framing it. Commented Dec 31, 2022 at 15:41