[MD] Moral Responsibility and Free Will

[david buchanan]

Steve said to dmb:

You have equated free will with the idea that you "could have acted differently." I'm just asking what you mean by that.  Maybe you want to take back your claim that free will equates to "could have acted differently"??? I would if I were you since I think Pirsig's version of freedom is very different from free will. ...If free will as "could have acted differently" is part of the MOQ, then I'm wondering if you can tell me what that phrase means by explicating the condition or conditions assumed under the past conditional contained in that phrase. But now you seem to be saying that a radical empiricist wouldn't describe free will in terms of "could have acted differently" at all. If that is now your position, we could then agree that the MOQ does _not_ support a "could have acted differently" version of free will and that this is something from the traditional version of free will that you have been sneaking in the back door.


dmb says:

I just don't understand how your mind works. It's simple, Steve. Free will is just another way to say that you could have acted differently. Free will is, as my dictionary puts it, "the ability to act one's own discretion". As I have already said many times, that is all I mean by free will. Every dictionary and encyclopedia backs this claim and I don't see any reason why the MOQ would defy the english language. Unlike yourself. 


Honestly, dude. What the hell is wrong with you?