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| Theoretical Philosophy » A Question About Free Will » 10/29/2018 12:46 pm |
- Albinus
- Replies: 23
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That I have free will is subjectively self-evident. I.e., it's simply obviously true that when I am deliberating that I am able to choose option A or option B etc. I can't doubt this any more than I can doubt my ability to reason. But it's "subjective" in the sense that only the subject can see the self-evidence of it. E.g., John can see that John has free will. And Jacob can see that Jacob has free will. But neither can see (in the self-evident way) that the other has free will.
That others have free will is at least a reasonable assumption since if I have free will it is reasonable to assume that other creatures like myself that behave as if they have free will actually do have free will as well. Without evidence to the contrary, it would be irrational to doubt that others have free will, even if we allow it as a non-contradictory hypothetical possibility.
| Theoretical Philosophy » Simulation Hypothesis » 10/18/2018 11:18 am |
- Albinus
- Replies: 16
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A few comments if we are "brains in vats":
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1) Some things cannot be reduced to mere simulation. Self-evident principles would still be self-evident. And we would still be certain of everything reducible to self-evident principles. Thus, theism, for example, is untouched.
2) Christianity and all religions would just be a simulation (by definition).
3) I am convinced that free choice is self-evident. And, that there is something about free choice and consciousness and the operation of the intellect that cannot be reduced to purely material causes. Thus, on my reckoning, absolute determinism and materialism are false. Thus, if I am a brain in a vat, I am not merely a brain in a vat.
4) We already have a good analogy to this brain-in-a-vat situation that we all experience: dreaming/hallucination. It is possible to experience a dream and think it is real. So it doesn't seem possible to a priori exclude the possibility of some aspects of our wakeful state itself being something like sleep compared to...I don't know...some higher state of consciousness that we haven't awoken to?
5) Regarding #4, I think we find something like this already expressed in Christian Theology? That this life is like a dream/sleep compared with the afterlife? That the next life is more real? In our "childhood" we live in make-believe but then we grow up? "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known" (1 Corin. 13:9-12).
6) If, per #1, theism could still be proven true, then perhaps one could argue that God, being Truth Itself, could not allow such a thorough deception of being brains in vats? Just food for thought...
7) If
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