That’s where we part, then. Free will is not incompatible with physical processes. The brain is part of the person, after all. As a human, I experience and enjoy free will, but it’s not some metaphysically detached soul or spirit or somesuch.
That kind of libertarian free will is physically impossible, and of course doesn’t exist.
But there is the idea of compatibilist free will. Here’s the Wikipedia and SEP articles on the subject.
The basic idea is that choice isn’t some magic physics defying thing, but rather an internal process. Consider the difference between being pushed off a building, and jumping. In the case of being pushed, falling is a consequence of external forces. In the case of jumping, falling is a consequence of internal forces. That’s what makes jumping a choice, but being pushed not a choice.
I love steak. On any given night out at one of our favourite restaurants my wife can predict what I’m going to order. But the last time out I ordered fish tacos for the first time in my life. My wife was like, WTF? And I was like, Free Will honey!
So does a rock have free will?
Does a simple engine?
What does make your brain different that it experiences free will?
Rocks and engines have no will, free or otherwise. Silly question.
I have no problem accepting that human beings and animals have ‘intention’- they are aware of what they want and how to get it. I am merely denying that these intentions are anything other than awareness of physical processes going on in the world.
:dubious: Rocks and engines have no agency of any kind, free or otherwise. They cannot make choices at all.
My brain, or rather my whole person, has agency.
Do you not believe that human action is dependent on brain states?
For the sake of argument I will allow for the purpose of this post that you have a Free will input into an action, and that you freely decide to, say, raise your arm. What bio-chemical process allows this to happen? That is the chain that you are looking for. Now remove the chimera of Free Will and allow initial state plus history to replace it.
But maybe that change of habit has a non-magical cause.
What is the empirical explanation then for how this ‘Free Will’ affects the physical/chemical world?
It was rhetorical. How did you get will, free or otherwise?
Human Agency, what is agency, as distinct from will/intention?
You are confusing Cause and Effect. I make the decision to move my arm, and those chemical/electrical actions allow my free will to work.
How do you ‘know’ that?
Does a super computer have free will? Does an ant? Does a thermostat? Does a baby? Does a Fetus? An unfertilized ovum? A spermatazoa? Does a severely demented person? Does an anencephalic baby? Does a Cow? Does a plant? Does a chimpanzee? Did Neanderthals? Did pre-classical humans?
What is your empirical decider between these cases?
Via the agent, in this case, a human. You’re dividing the person into a separate mind/will, and a physical body. They are one and the same.
What does it mean, that you ‘made the decision to move your arm’?
That was just more chemical and electrical processes, right? If an automaton were programmed to move its arm when a chemical level passed a certain threshold, would it have ‘decided’ to move its arm? Would it have free will?
Agency is the capacity to act. It is possible, however unlikely, that stones and engines have a will or consciousness of some kind. By all accounts, though, they are incapable of acting.
Agency is a way of describing behavior- a higher level description of what happens when organisms react to stimuli. It is useful to assume Agency as it is a useful shorthand for explanation.
Free Will goes further and claims that there is an object in the world that can divert normal bio-physico-chemico processes.
I am most certainly not doing that! I am denying that there is a separate mind/will. I do accept that physical brain processes cause experiences.
To refine, you are asserting that belief in a separate mind underlies belief in free will. This isn’t necessarily so.
Is free will a binary state or is it fuzzy? Are these animate and inanimate objects aware of their options in their given circumstances?