[MD] Free Will

[Steven Peterson]

HI Marsha,

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 3:30 AM, MarshaV <valkyr at att.net> wrote:
>
> I can't help but wonder...
>
> The topic seems all wrong.   Isn't the notion of free will (an intellectual
> static pattern of value) dependent the acceptance of causation?  MY
> CHOICE WILLED is the CAUSE of such-and-such independent EFFECT?


Yes, I have tried to make clear that the free will/determinism debate
depends entirely on premises that the MOQ denies. The MOQ denies free
will as well as determinism in favor of a continuum of reliable to
unpredictable preferences.  Determinism is false in the MOQ because
determinism leaves no place for values. Free will is also false since
though everything is preference (or value), it is meaningless to
assert that preference is free. What could a person's preference be
free of when all that a person is is a set of preferences? This
freedom to which the traditional notion of free will refers is the
freedom of an independent agent that the MOQ calls a fiction.

So in short, absolutely, "this topic...is all wrong." But the notion
of free will is such a cherished one that even MOQers who deny the
existence of the fundamental reality of an independent subject
nevertheless are horrified to think that this subject who does not
exist lacks free will.

Best,
Steve