Good grief Peter, of course we have free will, and of course there are limits to it - we can't just jump off the roof and fly just because we want to.

But even though it has its limits, we absolutely do have free will and everybody, absolutely everybody - Sam Harris and all the others who claim to be determinists included - actually do, functionally, believe in free will too.

It is impossible to live and talk coherently as a full-blown determinist. Unless it is we ourselves who are actually controlling what we say and do (and not just prior physical conditions extending back into the infinite past) then nothing we say and do can make any sense whatsoever.

Harris cannot stop contradicting himself. On page 62 of "Free Will" he wrote: “Where people can change, we can demand that they do so”. Huh? If everything is totally determined as he says it is, then nothing about the future can be changed, no matter how much Harris demands it should be!

The thesis of determinism being true is self-defeating. If one asserts that there are valid, comprehensible reasons for believing that determinism is true, then in doing so one shows that determinism must necessarily be false.

So, relax, we absolutely, definitely do have free will. But maybe don't relax too much, because by having free will that also makes us genuinely responsible for much of what we do - good and bad.

Our soul is shackled to physiology of the body, our free will is shackled to the psychology of the mind.
Man is a tribal creature and thus divorced from freedom permanently.

With nuance:

The soul is shackled to the physiology of the body:

The human soul looks outward from the shackled body and screams for freedom .

Freedom is shackled to the psychology of the mind:= (The ultimate price for freedom is a death wish)!

Death becomes inconsequential to the gains of freedom of oppression from the captor.{There is no freedom without war violence and mayhem, including suicide; all are a search for freedom)!

Religion as a controlling tool to the consequences of freedom:

Christianity and Judaism,

Moses and the Ten Commandments; thou shalt not kill particularly!

Islam:
Thou shall kill the oppressor, specifically stated as Jews and any other opponents to Islam.

Current Middle East war is a religious Crusade by Islam and must be viewed as a religious war for freedom.

Thou shall kill the oppressor, specifically stated as Jews and any other opponents to Islam.
diver dan,
I don't think that's correct. From what I hear & read Islam doesn't see non-Islam as oppressors that should be done away with. Everyone who is not Islam is automatically the enemy without actually being aggressive towards Islam.
Please correct me if that is a wrong perception.

because by having free will that also makes us genuinely responsible for much of what we do - good and bad.
JP,
Ideally yes, alas !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaM-INFI1RM

My guess is that this will go way over the comprehension of many !

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Dear Peter,

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You wrote :

« Joe Biden won the 2020 election against Donald Trump, when Kamala Harris, also a Democrat, could not in 2024? Why? I hope this question has been answered »
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Having closely observed events leading up to the US presidential election and reflected on the results, I think I have a fair idea of why Kamala Harris lost to Trump.

Perhaps you indicated in your article the reason why she lost, but I can’t say I noticed it personally. But please don’t be offended if you did. I have difficulty understanding the subtleties of academic language. If things are not stated plainly and clearly, it usually passes way over my head.

Free will, which you discuss at great length in your article, is a different matter. That is something I do understand.

I see free will as a functional advantage developed by nature. It is autonomy, the autonomy of the individual. Its acquisition and development are progressive. It is an evolutive mode of functioning. It has been evolving ever since the apparition of life on earth of which human beings are by far the most advanced form. We have long surpassed all other forms of life and all other animal species in terms of autonomy and continue to make progress, generation after generation. Though there may be important differences in the rate of development of autonomy among individuals due to all the variables that contribute to its evolution, progress is nevertheless achieved during the lifetime of each individual. Beneficial mutations and experiences continue to accumulate over time, multiplying and diversifying choice patterns to an ever-greater degree of complexity until the individual is no longer held to obey any particular predetermined course of behaviour, gaining in the autonomy we call free will.

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(Continued …)

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(Continued …)

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Autonomy or free will implies that the individual is capable of governing himself, of determining his own thoughts and actions without, or in spite of, outside influence. He must clearly be in the driving seat. He must exercise what we call self-control. Self-control is an integral component of autonomy. If there is no self-control, there is no autonomy. The degree of autonomy is determined by the degree of self-control and vice versa.

As the individual continues to emerge and develop free will, his vision of society and the environment in which he evolves takes on a new perspective. He develops a greater awareness of his earthly condition and the nature of his existence and life in general.

The emerging faculty to extract himself from his environment and observe himself as an individual is fuelled by that innate, basic emotion we call curiosity which mankind shares with other animal species. Our curiosity and need for understanding leads us to develop a capacity for abstract thought and imagination when no obvious rational explanation is available. It is a gradual evolutionary process that allows us to develop the capacity to project our minds beyond perceived reality in our quest for an explanation. Conscience and free will continue to emerge as a result of this development.

Enough said. I think I’d better leave it at that, Peter. I’m obviously off on a completely different tack to yours.

As all good men of the sea know well : "There can be no fair wind in uncharted waters".

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