[MD] Free Will

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[Steve]
> Humans have freedom to choose because they can deliberate and
> deliberation is free because it is the basis of choice? This is
> circular.

Sure is.  Eliminate "deliberation is free because it is the basis of choice"
to bust out of the circle.

[Steve]
> isn't the burden of proof always on anyone who wants to
> convince another of something? We share that burden equally. 

No & no.
 
[Steve]
> I am skeptical of your claim that you have free will as you are of my claim
> that free will is an unnecessary extra-added metaphysical ingredient
> with no empirical basis and no legitimate explanatory power.

I disagree with Harris that talk about free-will is gibberish.
He is like the marcher who says that everyone in the formation is out-of-step
but him.  Millions or billions of people have for thousands of years talked about
free will, but Harris & a few others think they're the only ones making sense.
Your claim is different--you say some claims about free will are false.
So if millions or billions of people for thousands of years felt free to change
their mind (the empirical basis of free will),
the burden is on you to argue they weren't.
 
[Steve]
> how do I know that a metaphysical
> entity called "my will" is what caused the act and further that this
> entity is free in some meaningful sense

Since I don't know what a "metaphysical entity" is & I don't think my will
causes acts, I'll pass on these questions.


[Steve]
> In the MOQ, what type of static pattern is "the will"?

[Craig, previously]
> The will is the interaction of different spovs.

[Steve]
> That interaction is either itself a pattern, a collection of patterns, or DQ.

Craig