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Comment by moritzwarhier

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Comment by moritzwarhier

In the context of free will (disregarding the full context here for a moment), this is where it actually gets interesting.

Theologists and philosophers alike have been thinking about the problem what "free will" even means exactly because of this, when there are no preconditions informing my decision, what does "free will" even mean?

In German, I have heard this being framed as "bedingt freier" versus "unbedingt freier Wille".

As a thought experiment, it makes a very good argument for a deterministic world view, quantum woo aside.

When there are no reasons for what I decide, what are my decisions based on? A whim? Chance? My personal taste? Well, my personal taste is a reason. And all reasons come from somewhere, right?

On the other hand, thinking of my decisions as without preconditions: what does that give me?

Decisions without rationale?

Sure, one can make everything more fuzzy by introducing probablities, even real chance if you like.

But also then, total determinism with hidden information is an immune theory that cannot be refuted, so it explains nothing.

But was does true randomness help with? I'd say, from a philosophical perspective, it doesn't bring any interesting argument to the table.

So this leaves us with free will as the only useful way of understanding ourselves and our role in the world, but on the other hand, it seems like a sneaky device for ourselves to ignore the infinitely confusing thought of considering ourselves determined by our circumstances (which, as a thought, already has real side-effects, too).

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