Dan Dennett on Free Will & The Self

[@dukeallen432]

Ah the senses of driving an analog car with adequate power, windows down, through beautiful terrain. Appreciate your thought sharing Dan.

[@dukeallen432]

Miss you Dan.

[@semarugaijin9451]

What is he driving? I can't quite figure it out

[@dukeallen432]

Bug

[@Tymbus]

I suppose free will could be considered as a description of a process much like an organ. So we recognise the heart as being an organ, having its own particular function. We can even see the apparent boundaries of the organ, and yet these are somewhat arbitary since the heart only functions within systems it is a part of. Free will is, as Dennett says, caught up in history, the shapes of cognition and so on. We put arbitary boundaries around the process of excercising free will.

[@Jalcolm1]

Will has to be free so that a merciful and loving God can punish you for all eternity for your sin. God gave you free will for exactly this purpose. Thanks, God.

[@Philosophy_Overdose]

Yeah, it's hard to imagine anything more loving and merciful than condemning those you love to infinite punishment - infinite pain and suffering for all eternity - for their merely finite sins on Earth!

[@YM-cw8so]

Why do most religious people speak with arrogance

[@EdricoftheWeald]

Interestingly, Islam and Calvinism deny free will while maintaining the justice of God, on the grounds that whatever God does is just. This is an old conflict.

[@Jalcolm1]

@@EdricoftheWeald it was not well known that most Calvinists are Muslims. Until now. Personally I am working on a concept called “free won’t “ since that may be an easier sell than will.

[@resiliencewithin]

Majority of philosophers today agree on the position of compatibility.

[@HalTuberman]

I don't think it's decided by a vote, nor are philosophers "experts" on the issue. They are merely experts on HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE ISSUE PROPERLY. I bet a lotta philosophers, maybe even Dennett, would agree with me here.

[@kellykizer6718]

I see it like a menu, you may not have the freedom to choose what's on the menu but your free to choose from what there is to choose from on the menu.

[@krumbergify]

What does the term ”free” add to ”free will”? What do you want to be free from? Your genes? Your childhood? Your memories? Your friends? If we remove all these, what is left of ”you”? Your ”will” is ”free” enough to express what is ”you” but it’s not free from ”you” :)

[@9Ballr]

"Free will" means being able to choose how to act in a way that is not determined for you prior to your acting. Free from causal determinism, essentially (though there are philosophers who are compatibilists who think we can act freely even if our actions are determined, but I don't buy that notion of free will).

[@krumbergify]

@@9Ballr Then it appears that only a crazy dog which runs around and bites people randonly has ”free will” ;) In that case I don’t want it :) Any rational being would be deeply influenced by previous experiences when taking any decision.

[@AlexanderLayko]

"The decisions I make exist independent of causality, antecedence, brain chemistry, and determinism because they just do okay? Something something quantum mechanics qualia Heisenberg uncertainty principle emergent properties. I am very smart."

[@Danyel615]

I missed the QM part, which time?

[@macw.7686]

Straw man

[@Philosophy_Overdose]

That's exactly the opposite of Dennett's view.

[@helloInternets]

Dennet's "Elbow Room" is a great exploration of the varying definitions of free-will. While it does explain the compatibilist position well, Compatibilism presents such a neutered conception of free will, its hard to see why it preserves it at all. Hume is considered to be a compatibility and he's an OG so while I remain a hard determinist, I can respect my boi Hume.

[@letdaseinlive]

How would state the Compabilist position/view?

[@notanemoprog]

I want to see Daniel and Sabine fight! By the way, THERE IS *NO* FREE WILL IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM

[@trueblueedits4673]

Then why are you typing this message as if you could convince us? Why bother at all? You are operating as if you have free will. And that *is* a kind of free will. How much more free can free be in a world of determinism other than the ability to do what we will? We cannot control our will but that's not important for epistemic free will. If you do something that reflects who you genuinely are and want to do even upon contemplation, then that is free.

[@Doctor.T.46]

I'm not sure Dan, if that answers the question of free will in a teleogical sense. But always good to listen to you. Also I'm not sure that taking responsibility is a social construct to deal with one's actions ... not whether those actions are a result of free will.

[@Stejarulpufos70]

This guy is more obscure than some wanna be Deepak Chopra

[@wietzejohanneskrikke1910]

Are you talking about yourself?

[@mojdemarvast2366]

I used to think that those who have the ability of moving, have the will power...then i thought the earth moves, rotating and turning around the sun .., why the earth is not given the power of will to change direction to stop?! I thought maybe it is because the earth is part of something bigger: the solar system. “There” is where earth is not only itself but ourselves. So maybe a sense of essential belonging is an eternal will to choose obedience... If i belong to a very organized and sustainable system i abide by the obligations. I should be “there”.

[@pluto9000]

I liked that time when Bret Weinstein showed Sam Harris how there is such a thing as free will. 🤣

[@DawsonSWilliams]

Much like a charlatan from the Ancient Greek world he will be forgotten. If he is lucky, perhaps he’ll survive as a footnote in some Library of Babel.

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

Consciousness is Le Illusion

[@KaraGhounKhan]

demonstrably vacuous pitiful what a waste of mental activity

[@bmxt939]

Who else thought: "why is there Letterman in my recommendations?"

[@billzepp69]

Yep well if you actually had free will you could forgive those people but because there is no free will of course their effects must inspire causes in you. Lol

[@bluesbunny121]

Too much talk about responsibility used as an argument, which is beside the point. The will to want to be responsible or not for decisions is just a crutch we use in order to get on day by day, to live in our required illusion, whatever it may be. This says nothing about the existence or inexistence of free will. This desire exists regardless of the existence or lack of free will. Also, even if the self is made non-responsible, you would still lock a criminal even if you thought he didn't have free will.

[@billzepp69]

The wise and just holding me responsible are of course wise and just them selves 😮😅