There may very well be something else that is also occurring besides absolute Determinism: randomness.
Consider, for example, the weather.
Weather exemplifies a fundamental tenet to Chaos Theory: a sensitivity to initial conditions. The more accurately that you can ascertain the initial conditions of a weather system, the more precisely you can predict it, but the slightest error can throw off such a prediction exponentially, and especially so the further into the future that you try to predict. At some point, precision reaches the level where quantum effects come into play, and it may be the case that these effects end up dictating the weather in the same way as Schrodinger ridiculed with his cat example. It may be the case that Determinism breaks down at scales where the effects come into play, or it may not. If Quantum Indeterminacy turns out to hold, then randomness may become a factor in certain ways to certain degrees alongside the Determinism that very clearly emerges in spite of it outside of the quantum realm (think the “red spot” of Jupiter, or the Lorenz attractor as examples of order emerging from chaos).
This argument could be clearer.
- Are you saying that calculating reasons requires “an internal”, absolute Determinism has all reasons as external, therefore it contradicts the requirement of “an internal” and Determinism cannot be absolute.
- And from this you’re concluding that with less than absolute Determinism, a non-zero degree of non-deterministic reasoning is being made, which must be Free Will?
I have challenged “2” in opening this post, I think the dichotomy of either Determinism or Free Will is a false one, if there’s anything other than Determinism then it’s just Indeterminacy, which is no reason and nobody’s will - nevermind a free one.
“1” needs expanding and explaining. What is “an internal”? Where exactly does it border the external and why? What is the connection between the internal and external such that they can interact? Is this calling upon Dualism and the mind-body problem? The subject/object split?
Deterministic causation operates throughout reality, including “the self” - a nebulous concept if there ever was one. Therefore I don’t think any distinction between any “internal” and “external” is necessary at all. So even though your logic sounds shaky due to the lack of clarity, I don’t think the premises get off the ground in the first place anyway.
Hard Determinism doesn’t absolve guilt, it ties everyone to their actions by definition: they literally determine their actions to happen. But they were also determined to determine them to happen, and so guilt is revealed to not be solely that of the determiner of said actions. And it’s not therefore all the fault of what determined them to determine their actions and not theirs at all - that is far too black and white. Guilt is not removed just because it’s spread out - to claim so that would be to commit the formal fallacy of “affirming a disjunct”.
Further, Determinism forces a much needed humility on people who aren’t solely responsible for any good that they determine to occur. Just like with guilt, merit is spread to what determined you to determine any good too. It is a much needed cure for the “fundamental attribution error”.
Basically Determinism does everything that Free Will does, but moreso and better. It provides context rather than focusing on the individual. If anything it emphasises consequences, making everyone more aware of what their decisions might result in, encouraging moral behaviour even more than Free Will does.