tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post5656227816264945318..comments2023-10-28T10:40:36.246-05:00Comments on Without Authority: The Scientific Assault on Free WillThomas Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16168017369500841150noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-76712361591305093032007-01-24T00:30:00.000-06:002007-01-24T00:30:00.000-06:00Thank you for this article. I have been exercising...Thank you for this article. I have been exercising my Apologetics muscles recently by following the Edge.org people (Dennett, Dawkins, etc) and their "simple man" arguments against the existance of God, and became stuck on the idea of "Magical Thinking" - it seems such a resonable criticism, a normal human behaviour that "causes" religious patterns to emerge over time with use.<br /><br />Thank you all for setting me straight and reming me of the presumptions behind their model of the mind - we have no free will, there are only a few possible outcomes of any scientific investigation.<br /><br />Bravo! Keep up the good work brothers, I'm adding this feed to my reader.Robin Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03979880670929952057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-35773099476433752192007-01-14T23:54:00.000-06:002007-01-14T23:54:00.000-06:00I have been led to think about free-will lately an...I have been led to think about free-will lately and I can’t come to any conclusion about whether free-will exists or not. In my younger days, I used to believe that we have free-will but Augustine’s view on sin and Luther’s comments on our inability to come to Christ without the Spirit’s enabling us to do so changed my view on free-will. I am no longer sure. I can still see the existence of a form of will but in order for our will to be truly free, it must be under the Lordship of Christ. As Patrick’s previous comment from Nykänen, that “to try to prove or disprove free will is like trying to sneak a peak of oneself in a mirror.” I tried looking at myself in the mirror the other day but I didn’t look too good. That’s how I see my own free-will (that is…if it exists).Kevin A. Samhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05052005947620751144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-53525433109142840492007-01-10T08:41:00.000-06:002007-01-10T08:41:00.000-06:00I can't access the NYT article, but Dennett wrote ...I can't access the NYT article, but Dennett wrote a book on free will some years back called "Elbow Room." Essentially he argues that meaningful freedom simply means having a certain level of flexibility and reflectiveness in our responses to the world, and that this is compatible with determinism at the physical level. In other words, a human being is free because she has a repetoire of responses of a certain level of complexity. <br /><br />I don't buy it, but there you are.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-22472092047650638022007-01-10T07:50:00.000-06:002007-01-10T07:50:00.000-06:00A finnish philosopher (Hannes Nykänen) has written...A finnish philosopher (Hannes Nykänen) has written that to try to prove or disprove free will is like trying to sneak a peak of oneself in a mirror. I think that is pretty much to the point.Patrikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10237545786695465374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-22792047475386084042007-01-09T13:07:00.000-06:002007-01-09T13:07:00.000-06:00I guess that makes some sense to me. However, it ...I guess that makes some sense to me. However, it seems like your analogy is more focused on whether or not lightning has free will, while the human's freedom is not addressed. I agree that the deterministic behavior of certain natural phenomenon is a good thing, as it allows humans to "look ahead and plan". But doesn't the word "plan" necessarily imply that the planner has some degree of free will? <br /><br />Dennett seems to assume that there are only two options for the universe (and thus the brain): pure determinism or pure randomness. But can't there be a middle ground that still allows for human free will?Thomas Adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16168017369500841150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-86096767144358373062007-01-08T18:16:00.000-06:002007-01-08T18:16:00.000-06:00An example from Dennett that I think helps explain...An example from Dennett that I think helps explain his view is that of a man walking through a field during a thunderstorm. If the lightning strikes in the field were random, the man would have no way of avoiding getting hit by lightning. If, however, they were deterministic, he may be able to predict where they would hit and thus avoid being in those places at that time. In this case, Dennett argues, determinism would help increase the person's freedom, since he would be free avoid being hit. If the lightning strikes were random, his fate would be left up to chance. This is what the article means when it says "causality is not our enemy but our friend, giving us the ability to look ahead and plan."<br /><br />Essentially, Dennett seems to equate freedom with predictability and the ability to judge what will happen in the future.Machthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04496087495904724449noreply@blogger.com