Daniel Dennet lecture on Free Will

[jduster]

The questioner at 1:18:10 explains my thoughts on this very well.

Dennett does not deny determinism.

But he does suggest free will, that humans are capable of doing otherwise, and that there is more than one possible future, which he does not prove.

Your thoughts?

 

[sganesh88]

Maybe that's the way to sound both Scientific and Humane.
They can't admit that there might be something else at work. We've satellites, man on the moon, particle accelerators, loyal puppies in the name of Newton's laws. How could they, after all this, admit something strange.?
But they can't confess the alternative to that is the hard ruthless idea that we are no different from a piece of stone we kick on the way to school.
So keep fiddling between the two ideas and throw in silly jokes here and there so the audience feel good about attending a totally pointless lecture. And people laughing to that dumb line, "or maybe you want to file a lawsuit on the brick thrower so you stifle the urge to move away"..! God, i wish there isn't any freewill. Only random mutations and natural selection could pump out such morons.

 

[Snooopy397]

Assuming you believe in God there is no free will, seeing as it already knows past present and future, it must mean your choices are already preset in stone. On the other hand, is it really conscious thought, or just the random firing of synapses, random electron and particle and chemical movement through the brain which you have no control over?