View Single Post
  #9  
Old 07-21-2016, 01:20 PM
GdB's Avatar
GdB GdB is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: CCCLXXXIV
Default Re: Free will in philosphy and science

Quote:
Originally Posted by thedoc View Post
Christianity claims that God has granted us free will to choose good or evil, but it is also claimed that God knows our decisions in advance. This is my only problem so far, that if our decisions are knowable, then how can those decisions be free?
Why would there be a conflict? Let's look at 3 cases:

Case 1: Somebody (e.g. your spouse?) knows you very well. Somebody else asks some decision of yours, you weigh the arguments pro and contra, and then, when you tell what you have decided, your spouse says to you 'I knew you would decide that!'
Case 2: An astronomer counts down the moment for a total solar eclipse exactly '10...,4, 3, 2, 1, Totality!'. how did he do this: does this imply that he has power of the sun and the moon? Or does it imply that he has a perfect insight in how moon and sun move? Did his countdown have any influence on what is happening?
Case 3: A neurologist has a perfect neuro-imaging device, attached to a supercomputer. The same person as in case 1 asks your decision, but before you can do this, the neurologist writes down your decision. You say what you decided, and the neurologist shows what you have decided: he knew it in advance!

My idea, is that, as in case 2, there is an illusion of power. But in reality there is no power at all, you just decide what you otherwise would have done, if your spouse of the neurologist would not have been there.

The problem is that foresight seems to imply fatalism: but that is not the case. Say, God has perfect foresight, and knows exactly what you will do. What then? Can you lean back, and say to yourself, 'Well, when everything is fixed, then I must not care about anything'. The error is to think 'Whatever will happen, will happen whatever I decide'. and that is wrong of course. If God knows everything, he also knows how your thoughts develop and lead to your decision. Foresight is no denial of free will. Your thoughts and feelings are the causal prelude to what you decide, and your decision determines what you will do, and so has influence on what happens in the world. The possibility of foresight doesn't change that a bit.

'Trick Slattery however makes this error. I might look later again in his argument, and see where he takes a wrong turn. He is fully aware that determinism does not lead to fatalism, but I have to look up why he thinks foresight precludes free will.
Reply With Quote
Thanks, from:
Angakuk (07-21-2016), davidm (07-21-2016), Stephen Maturin (07-22-2016), The Man (07-21-2016)
 
Page generated in 0.30591 seconds with 11 queries