A Sense of Free Will: the consciousness quagmire (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, November 15, 2015, 13:51 (3296 days ago) @ romansh

dhw The above is a direct repetition of the argument that if our choices are dictated by cause and effect, we do not have free will (= determinism). Quite right. However, there are other approaches to the subject which you consider to be irrelevant, just as you consider your definition to be the only accurate one. How many more times are we going to draw these circles?-ROMANSH: For me this is nonsense.
For a person to believe (or not) they could have done otherwise in a certain circumstance they need to have read the appropriate definitions of free will?
I think not.-What sort of logic is this? If they believe they could have done otherwise, they believe in free will. If they believe they could not have done otherwise, they do not believe in free will. But you tell us that they could not have done otherwise, because your definition of free will means that they don't have it. Please don't attribute your nonsense to me.-ROMANSH: Now that you are familiar with the various definitions of free will, do you believe you could have done otherwise around a certain event ... say creating this website and forum?
And here, I am not asking whether you can envisage any other past possibilities.-What you are asking is whether I believe in free will or not! How often must I repeat that I accept both sides of the argument as valid? In setting up this website I acted as if I had free will (i.e. as if I was able to do otherwise); on the level of cause and effect I acknowledge that I did not have free will (i.e. I was not able to do otherwise); and on the level of identity I acknowledge that I did have free will (i.e. I was able to do otherwise). If this is not clear to you, then I shall have to give up. -Perhaps I had better pre-empt the next repetition: when we discussed it all two months ago, you found it impossible to accept the view (which I illustrated for you with several examples) that both sides of an argument can be regarded as valid. Your inability to accept this is your problem, not mine.