Robin_Z comments on Possibility and Could-ness - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 June 2008 04:38AM

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Comment author: Robin_Z 14 June 2008 12:37:30PM 1 point [-]

Hmm, it seems my class on free will may actually be useful.

Eliezer: you may be interested to know that your position corresponds almost precisely to what we call classical compatibilism. I was likewise a classical compatibilist before taking my course - under ordinary circumstances, it is quite a simple and satisfactory theory. (It could be your version is substantially more robust than the one I abandoned, of course. For one, you would probably avoid the usual trap of declaring that agents are responsible for acts if and only if the acts proceed from their free will.)

Hopefully Anonymous: Are you using Eliezer's definition of "could", here? Remember, Eliezer is saying "John could jump off the cliff" means "If John wanted, John would jump off the cliff" - it's a counterfactual. If you reject this definition as a possible source of free will, you should do so explicitly.