Time, Determinism & Free Will
The Free Will Problem
A framing problem rather than a single theory: the apparent tension between a universe that seems to run on cause-and-effect (or, per quantum mechanics, chance) and the near-universal human sense of authoring one’s own choices and being responsible for them. Used as the stress-test underlying every other theory in this domain.
Proponents
Aristotle, the Stoics, Peter van Inwagen
Evidence For
A real and stubborn tension: physical law (or antecedent causes generally) appears to fully account for events, yet people have an overwhelming, cross-cultural introspective sense of being able to have chosen otherwise and of being accountable for what they choose.
Evidence Against
Compatibilists argue much of the apparent mystery dissolves once 'free will' is defined carefully, making this less a deep metaphysical puzzle than a dispute over what the word 'free' should mean.
Transmissions
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