| Geoff,
On your first paragraph, I do not understand it but I suppose that we´re in the clear on the basic stuff. By the way I´m one of those rare Jaynes fanatics so if you like to go onto consciousness - beware of getting all of that.
On the rest, let me repeat my earlier point: the only vantage point from which we can assess free will is the human vantage point - whether it is possible by thought experiment to construct some Thing that could have a full reduction to biochemical process is immaterial. The fact is that we as humans are not able to reduce everything to biochemical processes, and the litterature for denying us this capability categorically outweighs by far the litterature giving any credibility to thought experiments such as the ones you refer to of Searle & Dennett.
Let me take your:
"3. These biochemical processes are influenced by some other entity."
You seem to imply that that other entity is of necessity immaterial. But, I do not see why it should be. Assume that one selects randomly a ball with a number on it out of a series of 10 balls. Then one stores it, with no knowledge of the number, for later use in a game. At a certain point in time one needs to select an action out of 10 possible actions & this is done by looking up the number on the ball.
Surely, in this case there´s nothing immaterial involved. Surely, action is controlled by an entity outside of the control of the game played. The fact that that entity is in this case chance does not take away its value, in argueing for free will.
Indeed, as long as biochemically one stores a certain value that lateron is used in a biochemical environment that does not impact that value, & one decides to judge based on many things including that value one has free will, imho. It is enough that one stores with intention & re-uses with intention whilst there´s no humanmy possible way to predict how such a thing gets stored & whether or not it is being retrieved.
I read mimetic & extended phenotype Dawkins in that way - language is giving us ways to store biochemically information that is, biochemically, impossible to predict. That´s the difference between mimetic & genetic determination. Not a soul or a God but just a biochemical fact that leads to a biochemical indeterminism. A bit like the spider & its web.
GuidoNius |