Free Will (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Saturday, September 11, 2010, 11:16 (4973 days ago) @ David Turell

I have proposed a revised definition of "free will": "an entity's ability to make its own conscious decisions within constraints beyond its control"?-DAVID: A boundry is a fixed limit, while constraint implies wiggle room. My dog on a lease is constrained, but he can move around until I tug. A nation's boundries require a visa to cross them, except in the southern US where endless desert allows free passage on foot. But the intent is 'fixed'. I still like boundry.-It's a good distinction, and shows that my earlier comment "constraints ARE boundaries" was in fact the wrong way round! Thank you. But the example of the dog is an excellent illustration of why I think "constraint" is the right word. Just like the man in the restaurant with a limited menu, or a sculptor with a block of marble, or an agnostic considering inconclusive evidence, the dog can make its own conscious decisions (if we accept that dogs have a degree of consciousness) within the given restrictions ... in this case, of the leash. In some situations there will be fixed boundaries (e.g. natural and social laws, the body) and in others "wiggle room", so we need a word that will cover all of them. Boundaries are constraints, but constraints are not necessarily boundaries.