Interview with Richard Carrier on the Metaphysical Impossibility of Libertarian Free Will
Watch on Youtube
Check out Freethinker Podcast host Edouard Tahmizian’s shy-of-an-hour discussion with Richard Carrier about the metaphysical impossibility of libertarian free will. Our actions are aimed at fulfilling our desires; but where did our desires come from? Did we choose our desires, or simply discover that we had them? As Carrier notes, if you reason from premises to a conclusion, the premises and the rules of logic determine/cause your conclusion. Any interruption of that process would destroy rationality, not preserve it, making the supposed connection between reasoning and acting uncaused nonsensical. The concept of an ‘uncaused self’ originating actions would destroy the only sense of freedom that we can have, a compatibilist/soft determinist sense of our actions being ‘free’ from interference by causes external to ourselves (where our actions are free in the sense of being internally caused). If you take away a person’s memories, deterministic reasoning processes, proclivities, values, knowledge of particular information, and so on, what is left of the person? A person just is a bundle of causes; to remove the causes of a person’s actions is just to remove the person. But then, Carrier argues, you are not talking about free will anymore, but rather its absence. Tune in for an enlightening foray into an age-old philosophical issue!
[ Internet Infidels: Freethinker Podcast Page | Youtube: Freethinker Podcast Channel ]
Watch on Youtube
Check out Freethinker Podcast host Edouard Tahmizian’s shy-of-an-hour discussion with Richard Carrier about the metaphysical impossibility of libertarian free will. Our actions are aimed at fulfilling our desires; but where did our desires come from? Did we choose our desires, or simply discover that we had them? As Carrier notes, if you reason from premises to a conclusion, the premises and the rules of logic determine/cause your conclusion. Any interruption of that process would destroy rationality, not preserve it, making the supposed connection between reasoning and acting uncaused nonsensical. The concept of an ‘uncaused self’ originating actions would destroy the only sense of freedom that we can have, a compatibilist/soft determinist sense of our actions being ‘free’ from interference by causes external to ourselves (where our actions are free in the sense of being internally caused). If you take away a person’s memories, deterministic reasoning processes, proclivities, values, knowledge of particular information, and so on, what is left of the person? A person just is a bundle of causes; to remove the causes of a person’s actions is just to remove the person. But then, Carrier argues, you are not talking about free will anymore, but rather its absence. Tune in for an enlightening foray into an age-old philosophical issue!
[ Internet Infidels: Freethinker Podcast Page | Youtube: Freethinker Podcast Channel ]
