In defence of free will: Difference between revisions

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→‎Refuting the argument from incompatibility with a mutually exclusive dichotomy: Further clarified the analogy between causes and propositions.
→‎But how does it work?: Added a note on the potential for temporal uniqueness in contingent causal processes.
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A full accounting of free will allows that these reasons are to an extent ''themselves'' freely (contingently) chosen, and thus neither the choice ''nor'' its reasons are ''necessitated''. In other words, we are, to an extent, free to contingently "choose why we choose what we choose". There is a sense of circularity or endless recursion to this, but that is why the word "holistically" from the previous paragraph is especially relevant.
A full accounting of free will allows that these reasons are to an extent ''themselves'' freely (contingently) chosen, and thus neither the choice ''nor'' its reasons are ''necessitated''. In other words, we are, to an extent, free to contingently "choose why we choose what we choose". There is a sense of circularity or endless recursion to this, but that is why the word "holistically" from the previous paragraph is especially relevant.
It is also worth noting that because there are not necessarily any over-arching, time-independent "laws" applicable to the suggested contingent causality of free choices - the only time-independent "laws" are those reasons (in the form of principles) for his/her choices which an agent freely chooses to apply more generally - any contingently causal process such as the one described above by S1 => S2 => S3 (comprising C) could often also be the case that a unique, specific reason (or set of reasons) applies at any given instant for any part of that causal process.


Now, even though, hopefully, the preceding has opened up to some readers the possibility of contingent events (choices in particular) compatible with genuine free will, an external resource which might also be of assistance in this respect is:
Now, even though, hopefully, the preceding has opened up to some readers the possibility of contingent events (choices in particular) compatible with genuine free will, an external resource which might also be of assistance in this respect is:
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