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Re: "Is Free Will Incompatibility with Atheism?"
It depends. ;)
... on how you define free will. Fundamentally it's about whether when the mind makes a decision it is not hindered from carrying out the related action. It doesn't really matter how the decision comes about, whether the mind is deterministic or not, but whether the individual free to choose.
I get the impression that this problem derives originally from a dualist view of mind/brain - that is, does a deterministic brain hinder the freedom of the mind? But the mind is a behaviour of the brain, so that conception of free will is no longer useful.
In my mind, free will only makes sense at the level of an individual's actions as related to external impediments.
Nov 17 · 4 weeks ago
🌲 Total_FLOSS [mod] · Nov 17 at 22:16:
@Rochelimit I would argue that the question can then be simplified to: is there something that is not deterministic? If no, then there is no good way for free will to exist, if yes, then the only thing our will has to do is reach that non-deterministic aspect and let it influence the decision making.
Maybe the mind is already capable of reaching these unpredictable aspects, I don't know.
🌲 Total_FLOSS [mod] · Nov 17 at 22:19:
So in my opinion, free will could exist, but it is not effortless.
Is Free Will Incompatibility with Atheism? — I’d be interested in hearing what people here think. It seems to me that if we live in a purely material universe all of our thoughts are a product of the neurochemistry going on in our brain. This leaves little for free will to exist. Please feel free to explain your reasoning for belief for or against.