Submitted by Joe Cool on
Image by John Hain from http://Pixabay.com
We can characterize the free will – determinism problem as one concerning our conception of the deterministic character of the world. Some philosophers argue that this implies a view of the alleged deterministic character of the world from a human perspective. From a human perspective, the putative determinism that applies to our world is not one that enables general, accurate prediction regarding human action.
The conception of human freedom which takes into account our ordinary discourse and thought about human action and free choice allows that we have degrees of freedom to act, degrees which vary according to a variety of conditions. This ordinary way of talking and thinking about human action does not imply that we lack freedom to act or choose between alternative actions. Nor does this ordinary discourse and thought imply that human freedom requires that we act independently of corporeal (neurological) conditions or independently of environmental conditions. I call this the action-in-vacuum notion of human freedom and consider this a gross misconception of freedom.
Given these ways of thinking about the alleged determinism in the world and human action, there is no problem of free will. Humans can realize degrees of freedom and make informed choices; in many situations they can do what they desire to do or what they find to be in their best interest. There isn’t any conflict between this concept of free action and a concept of determinism which does not imply predictability or inevitability.
This does not prevent people so inclined (philosophers, psychologists, even scientists) from fabricating a problem of free will, based on a posited universal determinism which results in all acts being inevitable and which hypothetically implies general predictability of all human action. They can and do. Furthermore, nothing prevents them from advancing ideals of freedom based on an artificial definition of freedom which requires that a free act take place in complete isolation from all material and environmental conditions. Given these notions, there is no human freedom and you have a full-blown problem of free will. But in my view, this is just a philosophers’ problem — something for academics to play around with — but not at all something that has any bearing on our actual thinking and correct discourse about human freedom, nor any bearing on what we can and cannot do in the world.
Juan Bernal
http://www.philosophylounge.com/function-philosophy-pseudo-problems-free/