When I use the word "literally", I am referring to a correct statement as to what is actually going on in the real world, as a matter of objective fact. And when I complain about someone speaking "figuratively", I am criticizing the statement for being an
inaccurate and
false depiction of what is actually happening in the real world. The criteria for determining whether a statement is literal or figurative is to compare it to empirical reality.
It doesn't change anything. Determinism still doesn't allow alternate choices or alternate actions, nothing is freely willed, there are no alternate possibilities, only what is determined.
The fact is that determinism doesn't change anything. Choosing is still happening in the real world. Literal menus of alternate possibilities exist in restaurants. And it was causally necessary from any prior point in eternity that everything would be just so.
Ironically, "freely willed" becomes nonsense when taken literally. Free will is an intention that is freely chosen, that is, specifically "chosen while free of coercion and undue influence".
It is literally true that every action you take is not freely willed or freely chosen. There are no alternatives.
Every customer is free (of coercion and undue influence) to choose for themselves what they will have for dinner. And they will be choosing from a literal menu of alternatives.
The fact that they are not free from causal necessity does not contradict the fact that they are free of coercion and undue influence. Determinism does not change anything.
The 'choice' is fixed by antecedents before it happens, and the event proceeds as determined.
The choice is fixed by the antecedent events happening within the customer's own brain, thus it is each customer deciding from themselves what they will order for dinner.
The customer's own brain, as it is during its choosing operation, will also have antecedent causes stretching back in time to any prior point in eternity. But this fact does not change the fact that it is the customer's own brain that is doing the decision-making that is the final responsible prior cause of the choice.
Refer to your own definition of determinism;
''All of these events, including my choices, were causally necessary from any prior point in time. And they all proceeded without deviation from the Big Bang to this moment.'' - Marvin Edwards.
Correct. It was causally necessary from any prior point in time that each customer would be free (from coercion and undue influence) to choose for themselves what they would order for dinner. And that choosing process itself would proceed deterministically within each customer's own brain.
For example, upon considering the steak, I recalled that I had bacon and eggs for breakfast and a double cheeseburger for lunch, so, I inevitably chose the salad rather than the steak for dinner.
All events, including my thoughts and feelings as I made my choice, were causally necessary from any prior point in time. This included the menu of alternate possibilities, my considering those possibilities in terms of my own goals and interests, my choosing the salad rather than the steak, and the waiter bringing me the bill for my deliberate action.
Causal necessity does not mean what you think it means. It doesn't actually change anything. All of the events proceeded reliably, one after another, caused by some combination of physical, biological, and rational causal mechanisms.
There is no actual choosing.
That would be "actual" used as a rhetorical intensifier. You might also have used "literal" or "real" in the same figurative fashion.
The truth is that there is actual, real, literal choosing happening in the real world all the time.
Choosing implies the possibility of taking another option.
Correct. And, since there is actual, real, literal choosing happening in the real world there are also possibilities. For example, the restaurant has a literal, actual, real menu of such possibilities that you can choose from.
Events proceed literally as determined.
Correct. And, as it turns out, what we ordered for dinner in the restaurant proceeded literally as determined by us choosing for ourselves what we would order.
You see, events are not simply "determined", they are specifically determined by specific causes. A person, for example, is caused to be who and what they are, starting by prior biological (mating) and rational ("Will you marry me?") decisions by the person's parents. Then the person's own biology and rationality interacts socially with its social environment and physically with its physical environment over the years until he finds himself as an adult, sitting in a restaurant facing a menu of possibilities to choose from.
Then the person chooses for himself to order the salad for dinner rather than the steak, for his own reasons, including his dietary goals. That is determinism. That is also free will, a choice he made for himself while free of coercion and undue influence.
An illusion is the ''perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature'' - Merriam Webster
Good. Then you will understand when I say that the idea that determinism contradicts free will is an illusion. It misinterprets the actual nature of determinism, and, it misinterprets the actual nature of free will.
It has been explained that the multiple options, the items on the menu or whatever, are not there for everyone, that each person must necessarily take the determined action, one takes this item someone else a different option, etc.
The options and possibilities, the many different things that we can order for dinner, are right there on the menu. And they are there, equally, for every customer in the restaurant. Each customer has the ability to choose any of those options.
And they must have this ability, because they have no knowledge at all, as to what choice was causally necessary, until after they complete the decision making process that specifically chooses that option.
Each person has their own course of action, with no deviation.
But that course of action has not yet been finally determined until after they make their choice. No event will ever happen until its final prior causes have played themselves out. And the final prior cause of a deliberate act is the act of deliberation that precedes it.
Literally chosen? Choice requires the possibility of taking a different option. Determined means that there is no possibility of an alternative action.
Yes. Literally chosen. In fact, it was causally necessary, from any prior point in eternity, that the choosing would happen, and each customer would be making their own choice, free of coercion and undue influence.
Causal necessity is a fact which does not change any of the other facts.
You misconstrue determinism.
No. You do. But, then, many otherwise intelligent people also misconstrue determinism. They portray it as a monstrous causal agent that robs us of our freedom and our control, when it is actually just plain ol' reliable cause and effect, something we all take for granted in everything we do.