Free Will Is An Illusion, But Freedom Isn’t
Ching-Hung Woo says freedom is compatible with choices being determined.
Cue “compatibilism”. Which, try as I might, I am never able to reconcile with the manner in which I construe the existential relationship between determinism and value judgments “for all practical purposes”.
I’m not arguing that they are wrong, only that, so far, I am not able to grasp why [or how] on earth they are right. And even here I can only presume that [somehow] I do have the capacity to choose this. But if that is the case there is no need to speak of compatibility at all.
But: I do know where they will then take the exchange. To the argument that peacegirl comes back to time and again:
Ever and always it comes down to how you have come to understand the meaning of that word even though from my frame of mind you come to understand it ever and always as nature compels you to.
Something happens. Something happens because of the behaviors that I chose. I am therefore responsible for what happened because had I not chosen the behaviors that I did it would not have happened.
That is compatibilism?
Again: Huh?
It makes no difference how complex the intertwined factors are. It makes no difference that I am not able to untangle them in order to assess cause and effect in any particular context. It matters [to me] only that I either had some capacity to choose these behaviors autonomously or I did not.
This was explored in the film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:
[b]A woman in Paris was on her way to go shopping.
But she had forgotten her coat and went back to get it. And when she had gotten her coat the phone had rung and so she had stopped to answer it and talked for a couple of minutes.
And while the woman was on the phone Daisy was rehearsing for that evening’s performance at the Paris Opera House.
And while she was rehearsing the woman was off the phone had gone outside to get a taxi.
A Cab comes to a stop she moves to get it but somebody gets there first, the cab drove off and she waits for the next one.
Now this taxi driver had dropped off a fare earlier and had stopped to get a cup of coffee.
He picked up the lady who was going shopping who had missed getting the earlier cab.
The taxi had to stop for a man crossing the street who had left for work five minutes later than he normally did because he forgot to set his alarm.
While the man, late for work, was crossing the street making the cab wait Daisy, finished rehearsing, was taking a shower.
While Daisy was showering the taxi was waiting outside a boutique for the woman to pick up a package which hadn’t been wrapped yet because the girl who was supposed to wrap it had broken up with her boyfriend the night before and forgot to.
When the package was done being wrapped the woman was back in the cab but the taxi was blocked by a delivery truck.
All the while Daisy was getting dressed.
The Delivery truck pulled off and the taxi was able to go while Daisy, the first to be dressed, waited for one of her friends who had broken a shoelace.
While the taxi was stopped, waiting for a traffic light, Daisy and her friend came out of the theater.
And if only one thing had happened differently…if the shoelace hadn’t broken or the delivery truck had moved moments earlier or the package had been wrapped and ready because the girl hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend or the man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier or the taxi driver hadn’t stopped for a cup of coffee or the woman had remembered her coat and had gotten into an earlier cab…
Daisy and her friend would have crossed the street and the taxi would have driven by them.
But life being what it is, a series of intersecting lives and incidents out of anyone’s control, the taxi did not go by and the driver, momentarily distracted hit Daisy and her leg was crushed.
Her leg had been broken in five places and with therapy, and time, she might be able to stand, maybe even walk.[/b]
Of course Daisy’s leg was no ordinary leg. It was the leg of a world renowned dancer. And now, because of these “intersecting lives and incidences out of anyone’s control”, her life was forever changed.
And this works the same for all of us, of course. We think we are free to go about the business of living our lives autonomously. But how exactly is this point to be determined?
In a large sense our intertwining lives are akin to countless balls on a gigantic pool table. We zig and zag, caroming into each other in ways no one can truly grasp. Yet we can potentially create havoc in another’s life simply by stepping back into our apartment to retrieve a coat.