Well, I wouldn't say it's defined by determinism, but yes, free will does not exist. Determinism just happens to be the only rational alternative.
Sure but you accept the initial premise of free will without question. I find the meaning of free will as used by determinism to be impractical so I don't see it as a rational alternative. It'd be like taking the definition of a Pegasus and applying it to a theory of how the world works. A Pegasus doesn't exist and neither does free will as used by the philosophy of determinism.
Consider: the only option to being free is to not being free, and if something is not free then some other mechanism must be involved in producing an event. From where I stand there are only two such mechanisms; absolute randomness and determinism. Everything one does is totally and absolutely random in nature, OR everything one does is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. I pick the later as the more reasonable. I don't think anyone would say that what they do is absolutely random in nature.
Yes, but I don't consider freedom an either or choice. We have varying degrees of freedom. Just because we don't have complete freedom doesn't mean we don't have some freedom.
As far as randomness, some choices I make I see as random, some not. You seem to feel this has to be an either or process. Whereas I see there exists more than these two sets of possibilities.
I don't follow your conclusion of begging the question or circular reasoning. As I state above, determinism is only an alternative.
Begging the question, I'm sure you know what t means, but it's when someone includes the conclusion to be proven within the premise. Determinism uses a definition of free will that doesn't actually exist, then goes on to argue that free will doesn't actually exist. Rationally it doesn't prove anything other than the need to accept it's premise.
I certainly don't define it this way. That it doesn't exist is only the most reasonable conclusion I feel one can come to. Free will is the capacity to act decisively on one's desires undirected by controlling influences, the controlling influences being either absolute randomness or determinism. Take these away and what kind of operational mechanism is there? What makes free will run?
Nothing makes free will run because as defined by determinism, free will doesn't exist. You might as well be asking what makes a Pegasus run.
Well, I don't see choice existing because other than fulfilling personal need, there's no rationale behind it.
So? That doesn't mean we can't choose between alternate needs.
Let me ask you: When you make a so-called "choice" between X and Y why did you "pick" X rather than Y? Was it because your "picking" was a totally random event or because of something else? If it was because of something else, then in effect it was caused by some discriminating operative. Now, if you say this discriminating operative is free will then tell us just how this free will operates that it resulted in event X and not event Y. And to be up front about it, saying "I don't know" doesn't save you. This would amount to nothing more than saying "It was free will because I said so."
I'm glad you asked.
There exists a kind of dualism, not the supernatural kind but just simply the conscious and the subconscious mind.
I suspect this duality is what causes folks to believe they have a soul, and divine guidance etc...
What allows us to pick between different choices or really choices that are not predicated by the past is the fallibility of the conscious mind. Conscious perception is bad, inaccurate. Memory is imprecise and capable of being hacked.
Most of the time you are correct. Subconsciously we make most of our decisions. They occur without conscious control. In fact we use this to our advantage, like we are driving or performing routine tasks.
However we can also take conscious control of a decision. Consciously we have a lot of options as to how we affect any decision process. We can choose not to be affected by certain desires. We can weigh between desires. We can alter our desires.
How we do this is that we consciously exist in a virtual reality. We can imagine alternate futures, we can imagine alternate pasts. So in effect we can actually choose other than what we had. So we can make a decision that is not controlled/influenced by any past. We can make choices which are not based on any reality. We can consciously alter our past, our future our desires. None of it necessarily has to be based on any past reality.
We can consciously alter the past and actually believe that is what happened. Then our decision on a past that we created, arbitrarily.
I suspect different people have different varying degrees of being able to do this. From none at all to some who have become more aware of our ability to affect the virtual reality our consciousness finds itself in.
I believe that as we become more consciously aware, we will be able to achieve even greater control over our choices.
I think philosophies like Buddhism are a great way to begin to separate the conscious mind from the influence of the subconscious mind. Then we can consciously control what and when we want to be influenced by subconscious desire, and even the physical past.
