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From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: How much is that free will in the window?
Message-ID: <5367@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Mar-85 08:21:58 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5367
Posted: Thu Mar 28 08:21:58 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 08:21:58 EST
References: <1216@decwrl.UUCP>, <790@pyuxd.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 22

	I'd be foolish to say that my actions are not dependent on the
	actions of the people and things around me, since those things
	influence my thoughts, my perceptions, my analysis, my
	reactions, my intuitions, and my actions.  Those who advocate a
	notion of free will would claim that there is something more,
	that allows a person, based on the same input in exactly the
	same environment with the same current "brain state", to have
	some sort of choice independent of those variables.  I don't
	see any reason to believe that.

No, Rich, this is not what (some of us) have been advocating at all.
There is a difference between ``dependent on'' and ``determined by''.
I do not deny that my actions are dependent upon such things, only that
they are determined by them. What I deny is that when I feel as if I
am ``making a choice'' that the outcome of that choice is determined
by my current brain state. I am arguing that when I make a choice I am
really determining which of 2 (or more) possible futures will become the
real future in my deciding process, not merely going through a complicated
song and dance whose outcome was determined before I was born.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!laura