Author Topic: Free-will or determinism - a question.  (Read 27425 times)

torridon

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Re: Free-will or determinism - a question.
« Reply #275 on: March 06, 2018, 06:35:44 AM »
It all depends how I feel at the time I make the conscious choice.  If my choices were entirely pre determined by past events, then turning back the clock would just result in a repeat performance, but that would mean we were all just the equivalent of clockwork robots, reacting in accordance with our built in program.  The reality I perceive is that my conscious choices are ultimately determined by me, not just by past events.

What you are, at any moment in time, is determined by past events; ie including your state of mind. Whatever else could there possibly be that could influence our state of mind, apart from other things.  There isn't anything else apart from other things.

Stranger

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Re: Free-will or determinism - a question.
« Reply #276 on: March 06, 2018, 08:05:37 AM »
But the hypothetical scenario could never be proven one way or the other because it is not possible to turn back time.

It is however, and important thought experiment because it exposes your silly avoidance of the point. If time was rewound, then everything, including the state of your 'soul' (assuming for a moment that you have one) would be the same - so if you cling to the notion that you might choose differently, you can only be doing so randomly. If not, then you (including your soul) are fully deterministic.
x(∅ ∈ x ∧ ∀y(yxy ∪ {y} ∈ x))