Freedom (Is Free Will An Illusion?)

Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including concepts such as being, existence, and the universe. It is concerned with the big picture.

Ontology

a subfield of metaphysics that studies the nature of being and existence, focusing on categories of being and their relationships. It concerns itself with what exists.

Agent

An entity capable of acting or making choices, often considered in discussions of free will and moral responsibility.

The central problem of this is to understand the difference between events happening IN me or TO me, and my taking control of events or doing things.

Free Will

An event is said to be done with ___ when it comes about purely because of the agent’s willing it when they could have done otherwise.

This concept suggests that individuals have the ability to make choices that are not determined by prior causes, thus implying moral responsibility.

Determinism

The doctrine that every event has a cause. including human actions and choices.

For any event e, there will be some antecedent state of nature N, and a law of nature L. Such that given L, N will be followed by e.

Classical Mechanics

Newton 1687: A theory of patterns that provides accurate predictions for what a physical system will do based on what it is doing.

The branch of physics that describes the motion of macroscopic objects and is based on Newton's laws of motion, excluding the effects of quantum mechanics and relativity.

Conservation of Information

Pierre Simon Laplace 1814: The implication that since classical mechanics provides accurate predictions for what a system will be based on what it is, the information we would need to determine any event (past or future) is available in the current state of the system.

The total amount of information in a closed system remains constant.

Laplace’s Demon

Thought experiment about conservation of information: if there were a supreme intelligence that had all the information about the universe (i.e. forces, positions, velocities of every particle), then it would have everything it needed to know about what HAS happened and WILL happen.

Hard Determinism

The position that all events, including human actions, are determined by previously existing causes. Free will is an illusion and we are not agents.

Soft Determinism/Compatibilism

The position that while our actions are determined by prior events, individuals still have the capacity to make choices within those constraints, allowing for a form of free will.

Everything you should want from a notion of freedom can simultaneously exist with determinism.

Fatalism

What will be will be. Events are predetermined and inevitable, human action has no influence on what will happen.

Libertarianism

A view that seeks to protect the reality of human free will by supposing that a free choice is not causally determined but not random either. Disregards science, focuses on the “soul” or other factors that protect free will from the position of physics.

In other words, free will exists outside deterministic laws.

Emergence

The concept that complex systems and patterns arise out of relatively simple rules, indicating that higher-order properties or behaviors come from the collective interactions of individual components.

ex) we are collections of particles but we experience ourselves and others as single human beings, not collections of particles

Levels of Description

Different theories or explanations can be applied to the same phenomenon at varying levels of complexity.

ex) air we breathe is collection of particles, but it is also just air

Intentional Agency

The capacity of an individual to act purposefully and make decisions based on their own intentions, beliefs, and desires, reflecting the ability to exert control over one's actions. We deliberate about decisions.

Alternative Possibilities

The idea that individuals have the ability to choose between different courses of action, which is a crucial element in discussions of moral responsibility and free will. We have 2+ actions from which to choose.

Causal Control of our actions

Refers to the capacity to influence or determine one's own actions and decisions through causal sequences. We cause our actions.

Why does free will matter?

• if free will doesn’t exist, everyday practice of praise and blame have no rational bias

• if we don’t have robust free will like assumed, may open us ip to judging others less harshly

• MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Necessary conditions for free will

• intentional agency

• alternative possibilities

• causal control of our actions

Sabine Hossenfelder: We do not have free will

Neurology: brains are made of particles but we do not know how brains’ true natures are.

Physics: mathematically only one future per reality and we are in one reality.

Science: Story of universe determined by Big Bang. Events are consequences of physical makeup (reductionism).

Statistics: Predictions are not free choice.

Sean Carroll: Free will is real

Determinism is not opposite of free will.

Humans are too unique to not have any say and we are much more than collections of atoms. We have values and feelings.

Compatibilist free will: we can have free will without defying physics. We have values, atoms do not.

Daniel Dennet’s argument for compatibilism

Subjective experiences of choice are valid, even in a deterministic world. We should want a determined world to be compatible with our own free willed mind.

Actions are not inevitable. We have avoided nature for thousands of years by anticipating and correcting in smarter ways. We can prevent the probable future, but the future is what happens next and can change.

Mr. Post’s argument for free will

P1: Humans have subjective experience of our choices, or what feels like choice. We all have this feeling.

P2: In absence of compelling evidence to reject subjectivity, we should believe what that subjective experience tells us.

• Problem: we cannot see into the future

• Problem: are our thoughts “choices” or just how our brain interact with the world?

Christian Liszt’s argument: free will satisfies the necessary scientific criteria for being accepted as a real phenomenon

P1: we establish that something is a real phenomenon/entity/property because our best scientific theories support it. We measure the validity based on how indispensable it is for the best theories. For example, we have lots of theoretical evidence for the existence of electrons, not ghosts.

P2: Free will is such a phenomenon. Our best account of a human being is an entity that possesses free will, who makes choices and exercises control over their actions.