Quote:
Originally Posted by bertvan
I define free will as the ability to evaluate available information and make unpredictable, fallible, subjective choices based upon that evaluation.
Reply by Paul .....
Is this definition compatible with determinism and randomness?
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Paul, freewill surely requires consciousness? Do you agree? Good
Therefore materialism/physicalism cannot sit comfortably with freewill because consciousness to materialists are unconscious responses of the brain i.e. just an illusion of freewill *if* the brain creates consciousness.
Paul I ask you, if choice is just an useful illusion, how did it evolve via natural selection? How can the notion of conscious choice (i.e. freewill) be a useful evolutionary advantage, if it is an illusion?
Nor does 'randomness' help the physicalists stance much. For example one could say quantum events in the brain added an unpredictability to causality however freewill means conscious choice, it does not mean random unpredictability... there is still no good reason for a sense of choice (or consciousness) to evolve in the physicalist/materialist paradigm.