Is Free Will an Intuition or an Illusion? Or Neither?
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The libertarian philosopher, Charles Campbell, tells of our strong intuition that our will to action is free of the biological and physical forces we find in the rest of nature. As he puts it:
"human beings so obstinately persist in believing that there is an indissoluble core of purely self-originated activity which even heredity and environment are powerless to affect . . . because they feel certain of the existence of such activity from their immediate practical experience of themselves".
Hard determinists, on the other hand, tell us that this universal intuition of non-causality is simply an illusion. What if both the libertarians and the hard determinists are mistaken? Contra the libertarian, what if we have no such intuition that our wills circumvent the laws of biology and physics? And contra the hard determinist, without such an intuition, there is nothing to have an illusion about.
In this talk, Leslie Allan will put the case that the libertarian and the hard determinist are both mistaken thinking that we have such an intuition. He will argue that the circumvention of biological and physical forces in our heads is not the kind of thing that we can have an apprehension about. If Leslie is right, then what we mean by "free will" must mean something other than willing contra-causally. Come to this Meetup and judge for yourself.
This talk is based on Sec. 6 of Leslie Allan's essay: 'Free Will and Compatibilism' > www.RationalRealm.com/philosophy/metaphysics/freewill-compatibilism-page9.html
To get familiar with the terminology and for some background reading, check out 'Can We Be Free-Willing Robots?' at www.RationalRealm.com/philosophy/metaphysics/free-willing-robots.html
Kew Library is located on the corner of Cotham Road and Civic Drive, Kew. Catch the No. 48 or 109 tram from the city or the No. 16 tram up Glenferrie Rd. If driving, park in Civic Parade. Look for the sign displaying "Phyllis Hore Room" to the left of the main library entrance on Civic Parade.
Your gold coin donation at the door to help cover costs is appreciated.