[MD] Free Will (footnotes to Plato)

[Ham Priday]

Hi Craig --

On Thurs, April 21, 2011 at 8:03 PM, Craig <craigerb at comcast.net> wrote:



> [Ham, previously]:
> The best known argument against Free Will was formulated
> in the 19th century by Simon Laplace, who proposed that if
> there existed a mind that knew, to the minutest detail,
> everything about every particle in the universe at any given
> point, then that mind would also be able to predict, with
> absolute accuracy, what would happen in the future.
> Given the knowledge of all that is, we would know all that
> could ever be.  It thus follows that the entire course of the
> universe was laid out at its inception.  There is, in this, no
> room for a free will.  But this argument is flawed, whatever
> the calculation used to support it.  For if it were theoretically
> possible to know in advance what you will do tomorrow,
> you would then have no free will.

[Craig]:
> I'm not seeing the flaw in the argument.  It is "The best known
> argument against Free Will", so of course, it has the consequence
> that there is no free will.

Craig, I've removed the word "even" from the last sentence above which, I 
admit, is somewhat confusing.  Yes, it is an argument against Free Will, but 
Laplace used the premise that absolute knowledge would give us the power to 
predict events.  The "flaw" is that it is not possible to acquire absolute 
knowledge; so he is begging the conclusion that events are deterministic. 
Since we don't have absolute knowledge, he has not "proved" that there is no 
free will but leaves the question of a deterministic universe open to 
speculation.

Thus, while this may be "the best known argument" for determinism, it is by 
no means a logically sound one.  And, when you allow for the effect of 
conscious intention on perceived phenomena, the idea of a predetermined 
mechanical universe seems even more paradoxical, as it makes ethics, 
morality, and justice totally meaningless.

As I told Mark, I based this analysis on an essay which you may wish to read 
in its entirety at 
http://blogs.salon.com/0001561/stories/2002/11/17/freeWillVsDeterminism.html.

Happy Easter,
Ham