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As regards what I mentioned above re libertarianism (free will in an indeterminate world), here's a few comments from Rob Kane, a leading libertarian. They are from here: https://iweb.langara.ca/rjohns/files/2016/10/KANE_fw_1.pdfAh, here you're helpfully laying out a basic concept of (one way of saying) what is determinism.
'We often act from a will already formed. But it is “our own free will” by virtue of the fact that we formed it by other self-forming choices or actions in the past (SFAs) for which we could have done otherwise.
If agents must be responsible to some degree for anything that is a sufficient cause or motive for their actions, an impossible infinite regress of past actions would be required unless some actions in the life histories of the agent (namely, SFAs) did not have either sufficient causes or motives.'
The requirement that agents be responsible by virtue of past voluntary actions for anything that is a sufficient ground or reason for their actions in the sense of a sufficient cause. Reflecting on this regress leads to the conclusion that some actions in the life histories of agents, if the agents are to be ultimately responsible, must be undetermined (must lack sufficient causes).'
Let's hold it there for a moment. He is saying that to be held responsible for any given decision, we must have made a choice in the past (which helped form our character which determined future choices) that didn't have a sufficient cause. If you had to read that a couple of times to make sure you had it right then I don't blame you. Some time in the past you made decisions for no good reasons and those choices helped form your character which then dictates your decisions. Hence free will.
Does that make any sense to you? Apart from suggesting that random decisions are somehow associated with free will, how could this possibly work? Well, he makes an attempt at explaining what he thinks could happen:
'...there is a kind of “stirring up of chaos” in the brain that makes it sensitive to micro-indeterminacies at the neuronal level. The uncertainty and inner tension we feel at such soul-searching moments of self-formation would thus be reflected in the indeterminacy of our neural processes themselves, so that what is experienced internally as uncertainty would correspond physically to the opening of a window of opportunity that temporarily screens off complete determination by influences of the past.'
You'll note that part of that statement was quoted earlier in a mention of quantum indeterminacy. I can only ask if it makes any sense to you, because it doesn't to me. And there is no explanation as to how this happens. No evidence for it at all. Which isn't surprising as he's a philosopher not a neurologist. But if you can find anyone expert in neurology or quantum mechanics who could back up his prospective 'stirring up of chaos' causing 'micro indeterminacies of our neural processes' then let's examine it. Otherwise I'm putting this down as woo.
And bear in mind, he's one of the leading lights in libertarianism. Unless you want to discuss this type of...philosophising then I suggest we stick to compatibilism or incompatibilism and accept a determinate world.
Edit: If you want to actually listen to Kane describing this himself, here's the guy talking at a free will conference:
In passing, you might check out what he says about why we should be responsible for our actions. At around 21:00 he admits that we would automatically believe that someone who had committed a serious crime was culpable. But the more we learnt about his upbringing (very much like the hypothetical I gave upstream), the abuse, the lack of education etc, the less responsible we feel he might be. But Kane says that surely he was partly responsible for his own character. Surely his will could override the conditions of his life.
So he's actually saying that he must be responsible because he has free will to determine his own character. And if he has free will then he must be responsible.
Where's that face palm meme...
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