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Regardless on how you define "free will," it must be compatible with either determinism or indeterminism. Why? Because those are the only two logical possibilities. (If anyone here believes that there is another possibility, then please share it with us.) This is what most people fail to understand about the concept of free will: If determinism holds true, then every choice we make could not have been otherwise. If indeterminism holds true, then every choice we make could only have been otherwise due to chance.
Addendum:
I can restate my argument simply as follows: Our decision-making process is a strictly deterministic process or some element of randomness is at play. (This is what most people fail to understand.)
Also, I think it is fairly easy to give a rational explanation how libertarian free will can operate. (Libertarianism must reconcile itself to indeterminism.) It's called the "two-stage model of free will."
"A two-stage model of free will separates the free stage from the will stage
In the first stage, alternative possibilities for thought and action are generated, in part indeterministically.
In the second stage, an adequately determined will evaluates the options that have been developed.
If, on deliberation, one option for action seems best, it is selected and chosen. If no option seems good enough, and time permitting, the process can return to the further generation of alternative possibilities ("second thoughts") before a final decision.
A two-stage model can explain how an agent could choose to do otherwise in exactly the same circumstances that preceded the first stage of the overall free will process." - Wikipedia: Two-stage model of free will
Comments:determinism : a theory or doctrine that acts of the will, occurrences in nature, or social or psychological phenomena are causally determined by preceding events or natural laws
indeterminism : a : a theory that the will is free and that deliberate choice and actions are not determined by or predictable from antecedent causes b : a theory that holds that not every event has a cause
(source: Merriam-Webster)
Regardless on how you define "free will," it must be compatible with either determinism or indeterminism. Why? Because those are the only two logical possibilities. (If anyone here believes that there is another possibility, then please share it with us.) This is what most people fail to understand about the concept of free will: If determinism holds true, then every choice we make could not have been otherwise. If indeterminism holds true, then every choice we make could only have been otherwise due to chance.
Addendum:
I can restate my argument simply as follows: Our decision-making process is a strictly deterministic process or some element of randomness is at play. (This is what most people fail to understand.)
Also, I think it is fairly easy to give a rational explanation how libertarian free will can operate. (Libertarianism must reconcile itself to indeterminism.) It's called the "two-stage model of free will."
"A two-stage model of free will separates the free stage from the will stage
In the first stage, alternative possibilities for thought and action are generated, in part indeterministically.
In the second stage, an adequately determined will evaluates the options that have been developed.
If, on deliberation, one option for action seems best, it is selected and chosen. If no option seems good enough, and time permitting, the process can return to the further generation of alternative possibilities ("second thoughts") before a final decision.
A two-stage model can explain how an agent could choose to do otherwise in exactly the same circumstances that preceded the first stage of the overall free will process." - Wikipedia: Two-stage model of free will
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