Well there you have it: the Cretan Paradox, about as consisely as I have seen it.
If free will is an input, it comes from some exterior source ("God" if you like). If it comes from some exterior source, then it is not self-generated.
If free will is indeed an input, how can responsibility gain purchase? Congratulating someone for good deeds is then silly. Condemning him for evil deeds is equally silly. He is merely the instrument of the 'Great Inputter'...
If "free will" is to have any meaning then it must (at least) be self-generated, or so it seems to me.
Hence if free will is an "input" it is determined by some exterior force. Ergo, 'free will' is not free.
We act and feel as if we have 'free will' but this is as much an illusion as the illusion that time 'flows'.
--Boris
If free will is an input, it comes from some exterior source ("God" if you like). If it comes from some exterior source, then it is not self-generated.
The key factor is defining the system, to determine input and output. If we're speaking of the mind, then the "will" is said to be intrinsic with it, from birth or conception, so it is not an input in terms of the system of the mind.
But in terms of the system of a decision, it is an input. There, one weighs one's experiences (input) with one's tastes (previous decisions and experiences) (input) and determines the likeliest, best possible output. The will weighs the inputs, and selects the output, consciously or not.
Let's define what we mean by "free will": given a set of alternatives, the will chooses one and pursues it.
This is our universal subjective experience, which argues for free will.
The counter argument is that we're just fooling ourselves, that our lives are determined by our birth, but we're not aware of our inputs and then make up our intentions after our decision is made.
I don't see why I should reject my subjective experience and that of every human being in favor of this theory.
Deterministic explantions always seem to be handy ways of explaining away our immoral behavior and the accompanying guilt. I am suspicious of self serving explanations like this.
We act and feel as if we have 'free will' but this is as much an illusion as the illusion that time 'flows'.
What is your evidence that free will is an illusion? Or has your mind been predetermined to believe this and it is useless discussing it??? ;)