Quote:
Quote by: Yasa  If you'll note the above argument, as soon as someone knows your future actions, your actions are no longer contingent. The fact that someone can see what will happen means that nothing else can happen (or evidently they can't see what will happen). If nothing else can happen then your choice is not free.
Want free will? Don't let anyone see the future. |
Again just because nothing else can happen does not mean nothing else has the potential of happening.
At this point I think it is a semantic argument, or at least an undecidable issue. Not that I necessarily believe what I wrote above but I think it should be clear that the issue can be looked at in other ways that are just as valid.
I gave a good argument for free will as potential to act. Have you ever read this story:
Quote:
A young Persian gardener said to his Prince:
'Save me! I met death in the garden this morning, and he gave me a threatening look. I wish that tonight, by some miracle, I might be far away, in Ispahan.'
The Prince lent him his swiftest horse.
That afternoon, as he was walking in the garden, the Prince came face to face with Death. 'Why,' he said, 'did you give my gardener a threatening look this morning?;
'It was not a threatening look,' replied Death. 'It was an expression of surprise. For I saw him here this morning, and knew that I would take him in Ispahan tonight.'
|
That is The look of Death by Jean Cocteau.