What is sentience? Who/what has it?
How do we know that?
For instance, ants seem to have well directed behaviour. How would one determine whether they had ‘freedom to act’?
That’s a job for biologists and various other scientists to identify. But I believe that for the purposes of the OP, this isn’t even the correct question to be asking.
If I understand the OP, you lean towards determinism and by implication you make the claim that all decisions are pre-determined at or around the time of the origin of the universe, is that a correct assumption? If so, would you not consider that to be an extra-ordinary claim?
Right, and I get that. It’s hardly what most people are talking about when discussing the topic. It’s just a (poor, IMO) dodge of the issue.
How far do we have to proceed with your chain of “What is…?” queries/diversions before we can get back to the topic?
We are limited in our ability to know the minds of others. As you and I are humans, we can make reasonable inferences that other humans’ minds work something like ours. In the case of non-humans, we can observe behavior and examine the nervous system, but that’s about it. Until we have more sufficiently advanced technology, we cannot know the mind of an ant.
As for their freedom to act, we can ask: can an ant disobey directives external to it?, for a start.
No, I would consider that the claim that Free Will in some way changes the laws of physics (with apologies to Scotty) is the extra-ordinary claim.
The Universe is some 14 billion years. If we accept that homo sapiens sapiens is the first creature to attain free will, then the universe existed without such an entity for 99.999993% of its existence without free will, and then suddenly it became tremendously important for the final 0.000007% of time.
I can think of many non-human, non-biological objects that meet criteria 1, and might argue for awareness for lower animals in whom we would not want to invest much free will.
I don’t think we can anymore than we can assume that they did not have the freedom to act. Not without further studies anyway.
I don’t know, but does it have the ability to consider various options and take a decision? That is the crux of the matter.
I am quite willing to allow that assuming a convenient phrase like ‘free will’ makes discourse on behavior easier, but that does not admit that it has any causative effect.
For instance, I might find it easier to describe your social behavior if I knew how you voted, but that does not mean that your voting intention determines your actions.
So ‘Free Will’ is an object that lacks any defining criteria- we must just assume/presume?
That is why there is more than one criteria. You don’t take individual ingredients for a cake and ask “Is this a cake?”
Does it? I’ve no idea.
Of course it has a causative effect. There is a bridge linking the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. It was conceived, designed, and built by humans. Do you mean to suggest that this bridge came to exist though some means other than deliberate choice?
I do not accept that homo sapiens were the first creatures to exhibit free will. And while the universe is in fact as old as you say, the fact that free will may be argued to exist only in the last 0.0000007% of its existance, does not mean that it’s not possible for it to have existed earlier - simply that there (possibly) were no sentient entities to exercise it until more recently.
If by “Free will” you mean libertarian free will, then that does not and cannot exist.
But words are allowed to have multiple meanings. And in this case, the first meaning, libertarian free will is a rather useless concept, since it isn’t real. So why not use the concept of compatibilist free will, which does (or at least can) exist?
And yes it is about human thought processes, because that’s how humans make decisions, which is generally what you’re interested in when you’re talking about free will.
Compatibilist free will is not merely a social construct. It is a real thing that does exist.
If a car moves, was it because of its engine, or because of physics? Both. The engine is part of physics.
If a human makes a decision, was it because of free will or physics? Both. Free will is a decision making process in the brain, that runs on physics.
No, ‘Free Will’ is an action. We can argue about the chemical/physical components that allow the action to take place and the circumstances under which the action is (or is not) executed.
So all of those dictionary definitions would need to be met for sentience to exist?
Usually 1,2,3 lists in dictionaries are alternatives!
Specifically, then, a boorish person would not be sentient according to that definition:
" finely sensitive in perception or feeling "
Those are excellent examples- physics and free will are constructs but not the actual causes- constructs explain but do not compel!
Ants build ant hills. Are they making a deliberate choice?