Originally Posted by nighthawk
Originally Posted by DBT
The brain of a Butterfly can make decisions, a computer can select between a set of options based on the given criteria. Making decisions is not a matter of will.

Free will is 1) a capacity of the human intellect 2) to choose independently of natural, social, or divine restraints (different than coercion).


The problem being that there is always a natural restraint.

It's called the condition of your brain, its capacity and information state in any given moment in time.

You don't choose to forget where you placed your key, you cannot recall because recalling is a brain function.....but a moment later the memory may come to mind unbidden.

You are not taking into consideration the underlying unconscious processes, neural activity, that generates and forms your experience of perception, thought and decision making.

You need to define what you mean by free will; compatibalist free will, Libertarian, the ability to have chosen otherwise in any given instance in time, etc, etc.

For a start, do you believe that the world is determined or probabilistic?

Originally Posted by nighthawk

Look at 2) above. A computer is obviously restrained by the laws of physics. I would argue that a butterfly is similarly restrained by the laws of nature. People are not though their choices may be influenced by many things. We are not even restrained in our choices by a deity, heaven or hell, whichever you wish. Unless, of course, people are on par with butterflies.



The brain is also restrained by it's own architecture, which may or may not enable such abilities as math, the ability to reason, control impulses, etc.

Neural architecture being the sole source of information processing and decision making, sensory inputs, distribution and processing of sensory information, integration with memory followed by conscious awareness of that information in the form of our experience of the world and self.....

Last edited by DBT; 07/17/19.