Information and free will (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, October 15, 2011, 18:42 (4788 days ago) @ romansh

ROMANSH: One of the reasons I do not answer all your questions, is that there are many of them. My posting style I find lends itself to relatively short exchanges.

My apologies. I do tend to go on a bit! I’ll pick out the most relevant points and try to keep my responses shorter.

ROMANSH: Are you aware of all the unconscious drivers that cause your will? Or is it just conscious drivers that create your will. If my will is created by my unconscious it seems pointless to me to force conscious into the definition. [And later:] The question remains in that we have wills (wants, desires) that we are not aware of, so we should be asking can these wills be free.

This is an equivocation. The word “will” has several meanings. “Free will” according to your own definition relates to “the ability to act on or make choices”. It is a totally different meaning from desire (unconscious driver). We all have sexual wants/desires, but we use our will (ability to make a choice) to control them. Would you exonerate a rapist by saying: “It was his sexual desire that made him do it”?

ROMANSH: You think whether our brain chemistry affects our thoughts is unknowable. But we can experiment on the effect chemicals on my brain and thoughts. I volunteer to be tested - I can suggest some nice single malts as chemicals.

I think no such thing. “Unknowable” was my answer to your question: “Which came first the thought or the brain chemistry?” Nevertheless, this is a very important point which I’ve also raised with David. We know that drugs, alcohol, diseases etc. affect the brain and hence our behaviour. This seems to indicate that our identity and hence our will has its source in materials. But if the self is immaterial – which is the big question – a possible explanation might be that these influences disturb the contact between it and the brain. A drunken rapist might say: “I wasn’t myself”, i.e. he had lost the conscious control that constitutes his free will, and so his desires took over. But I don’t know any more than you or anyone else how the mechanisms work.

ROMANSH: Think of TV program you really detest. Now when it comes on watch it all the way through. You seem to think this is somehow independent of the conversation we are having. I simply would argue your will (desire) to prove me wrong is simply greater than your desire not to watch the program.

I would argue that I have to be conscious of the two desires (proving you wrong / switching off) before consciously making my choice (will). Once again, will as in “free will” does not refer to the desire but to the ability to control or choose between desires ("act on or make choices").