[MD] Free Will (footnotes to Plato)

[david buchanan]

Dan said:
... I am guessing all the major religions use the notions of free will and determinism to explain the problem of good vs evil. That would seem to point to previous religious ideas far older than our "modern" ones, from which they are all descended.


dmb says:
I think that's right. It hardly seems like the same thing at all on the surface. In pre-modern times determinism meant that the gods had already decided your fate but for the century or two determinism has meant that you are bound and determined by natural laws. The former is based on the whims of the gods and the latter is based on a perfect chain of causality that extends from the big bang to the end of this sentence. In both cases, your so-called choices are not really choices at all and were in fact decided long ago. Either way, determinism is absolutely bleak. Who doesn't bristle and shudder at the thought? You meaningless cog, you!