Changes

This article on free will seems quite brief so I've added a section here. It's not fantastically well written and it's a bit waffly but hopefully it'll do until it can be expanded, either by my or another person.[[User:Sam99foster|Sam99foster]] 10:51, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

This article on free will seems quite brief so I've added a section here. It's not fantastically well written and it's a bit waffly but hopefully it'll do until it can be expanded, either by my or another person.[[User:Sam99foster|Sam99foster]] 10:51, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

: I like the first sentence, bu I find the rest confusing.  It seems to be starting with the assumption that determinism is the opposite of free will, then redefines free will to be determinism!  This means that it's not actually the opposite after all, but simply another name for the same thing.  [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 11:03, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

: I like the first sentence, bu I find the rest confusing.  It seems to be starting with the assumption that determinism is the opposite of free will, then redefines free will to be determinism!  This means that it's not actually the opposite after all, but simply another name for the same thing.  [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 11:03, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

:: Yeah sorry, I should've made that clearer but I hoped I could leave it a little implicit. Essentially Hume draws a distinction between two kinds of freedom - freedom of action and freedom of will. The former is the freedom to do as you choose (i.e. it would be compromised if you were in jail or tied up or something), and the latter is the freedom to determine your own will. Hume says that confusion between these two terms is at the root of many discussions of free will, since often people use free will to mean the latter thing when in reality it doesn't make much sense - either things are determined or they are random (because of cause and effect). Is that at all clear?

:: Yeah sorry, I should've made that clearer but I hoped I could leave it a little implicit. Essentially Hume draws a distinction between two kinds of freedom - freedom of action and freedom of will. The former is the freedom to do as you choose (i.e. it would be compromised if you were in jail or tied up or something), and the latter is the freedom to determine your own will. Hume says that confusion between these two terms is at the root of many discussions of free will, since often people use free will to mean the latter thing when in reality it doesn't make much sense - either things are determined or they are random (because of cause and effect). Is that at all clear? --[[User:Sam99foster|Sam99foster]] 11:58, 14 September 2008 (EDT)