Determinism is not regulation.
Determinism includes
every functioning causal mechanism. It includes the force of gravity. It includes the process by which our microwave oven cooks our meals. It includes us getting up and walking to move our body from one place to another. It includes us deciding for ourselves whether to order the steak or the salad from the restaurant menu.
Gravity, strong force, weak force, etc, don't regulate, they are attributes of the system. Microwave ovens don't regulate the system, they are states and actions of the system fixed by prior states and actions of the system.
The actors play out their parts with no deviation.
The brain doesn't regulate the state of the system, the state of the brain is fixed by prior states of the system.
Nothing is regulated in a deterministic world. Everything, however complex the system, is set by prior states of the system.
If decisions entail the possibility of taking a different action, there are no decisions within a determined world. Everything evolves from prior to current and future states of the system with no deviation.
And it must include them all, without exception, because determinism itself is not a functioning causal mechanism. Determinism itself never determines anything. Only the actual objects and forces that make up the physical universe, through their own natural interactions, cause any events to happen.
As to regulation: that which decides what will happen next is exercising regulative control. Determinism, which never decides anything, because it lacks a functioning brain, never exercises regulative control. So, that leaves it to us, and all other intelligent species, to exercise regulative control.
But nothing is decided in the sense that something else could have happened or been decided. Nothing else can happen, just the evolution from prior to current states of the system.
There are no independent, individual decisions or actions.
Regulation implies the ability to have done otherwise.
We have the ability to have done otherwise. Watch: I just raised my right hand. Watch again: I just raised my left hand.
No, that action is prompted by the challenge to your belief in free will. Without that challenge or prompt, your brain would not have performed the action.
The state of the system progressed from challenge to reaction; 'I shall raise my left arm to prove I have free will.''
The motor action initiated before you experienced the conscious thought.
Input, unconscious processing, conscious response. You know how it works.
We have just establish, beyond any reasonable doubt, that I have the ability to raise my right hand and that I also have the ability to raise my left.
Now, watch one more time: I didn't raise either hand! Do you conclude from this that I have somehow magically lost the ability to raise either hand?
This is an empirical demonstration of "the ability to do otherwise".
Nope. A flawed argument and example for the reason described above and supported by numerous pages from neuroscience;
The personal
narrative.
''For example, in one study, researchers recorded the brain activity of participants when they raised their arm intentionally, when it was lifted by a pulley, and when it moved in response to a hypnotic suggestion that it was being lifted by a pulley.
Similar areas of the brain were active during the involuntary and the suggested “alien” movement, while brain activity for the intentional action was different. So, hypnotic suggestion can be seen as a means of communicating an idea or belief that, when accepted, has the power to alter a person’s perceptions or behaviour.''
''All this may leave one wondering where our thoughts, emotions and perceptions actually come from. We argue that the contents of consciousness are a subset of the experiences, emotions, thoughts and beliefs that are generated by non-conscious processes within our brains.''
Every philosopher, every scientist, every academic institution, who has asserted that determinism implies that there is no ability to do otherwise, is incorrect. Look at the logic, and see it for yourself.
The logic is flawed for the reasons described.
You yourself gave a definition of determinism that denies the ability to do otherwise. That all events proceed without deviation.
That all events proceed 'without deviation' denies all possibility of doing otherwise. Doing otherwise is a deviation.
''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.
There is no 'I'll go with this option rather than that option.'
It is astounding that you, or anyone else, would make such a claim in the face of the objective fact, that "I'll go with this option rather than that option" happens every day!
It's entailed in the given definition of determinism. There is no way around it. Saying "I'll go with this option rather than that option'' is a reflection of limited knowledge of the state and progression of events within the system.
We act in response to events as we perceive them.
The brain as a deterministic system responds according to its state and condition. The outcome being determined before the event.
The outcome is being caused by the brain's events, therefore the outcome cannot be caused before the brain shows up and runs the physical processes that produce that event.
The system evolves deterministically, things come into existence according to prior states of the system and evolve ever after, life forms, cells, multicellular, dinosaurs, mammals, man typing on computer.....
It's entailed in your own definition, may I remind you.
An event can be predicted in advance, but it can never be caused in advance.
The system evolves deterministically, no deviations.
Nobody has said anything about operating outside of the causal web (not chain because events have many causal inputs)
But you have! You continually deny that the causal web includes us deciding for ourselves what we will order for dinner. So, it is you that is evicting us from the causal web, not me. I'm just pointing out the significant role we play within total scheme of causation. You continually deny us that role, despite the empirical evidence of us simply choosing what we will order for dinner.
That's not it. The causal web unfolds as determined. We are aspects of the system, not separate from it.
Which is why, if the world is deterministic, we have no independent agency or action, and cannot have the ability to do otherwise, ie, something that is not determined, that is not fixed by prior states of the system.
What you have for dinner is fixed by the very same web of causality that brings you to the restaurant to place the order that was determined, not freely chosen as if you had an alternative.
And now you wish to make the "web of causality" into an intelligent agent that leads us, blindfolded, to the restaurant and orders our dinner for us?
Hard determinists always want it to be something other than us that is making the decisions. But neuroscience repeatedly confirms that making decisions is a function of our own brains.
So, again, you are denying empirical reality in favor of some delusional view of how things actually work.
That's not what I am saying. Determinism entails that all actions are fixed by prior states of the system. If the world is determined, we are not being led or forced or coerced, events (including us) evolve as determined. Neither chosen or willed, events must proceed without deviation.
Again, it's entailed in your own definition. The very same definition I use, excluding 'free will'' of course.
If inevitable, it was never a choice.
Unless, of course, it was inevitable that there would be a choice and that we would make that choice!
The incompatibilist position appears to be filled with false claims, paradoxical notions, and a lot of silly nonsense. It is time that it be abandoned by all reasonable people.
There cannot be a realizable alternative action within a determined system, therefore choice is an illusion caused by having limited information about the system. If you had perfect knowledge of the state of the system, you could predict someone's actions without error as they inevitably play their role in life.
That is the nature of determinism.
What Does Deterministic System Mean?
''A deterministic system is a system in which a given initial state or condition will always produce the same results. There is no randomness or variation in the ways that inputs get delivered as outputs.''
