[MD] Free Will

[Steven Peterson]

Hi Craig,


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

Craig:
> No & no.

Craig:
I don't see your folding of arms and leaning back in your chair as you
claim that the burden of proof is on me is any different from saying
that you are out of arguments other than that the latter claim would
be more honest.


>
> [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.
>

Craig:
> 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:
But we don't disagree that many of our acts are accompanied by the
feeling of having willed them. I have this feeling often. The question
is whether or not this willing we feel is meaningfully free. You
haven't even made sense of what that could even mean let alone
provided any good arguments in favor of it.

Best,
Steve