"Ultimately, you can trace the line of causation back to SOMETHING that made you do it. And there HAS to be a something".
Isn't this the classical Newtonian view of reality, the chain of cause and effect or the 'billiard ball model'? Which, to be fair, works pretty well at the macro level but breaks down at the quantum level. If there's a possibility that consciousness owes its existence to quantum or other particle physical laws then maybe free will isn't such a simple phenomenon.
How can we have rational knowledge without free will? Today we are looking at the question of whether free will exists or not. If my thoughts are pre-determined by a mechanical universe and out of my control, then I have no option of freely analysing the arguments and weighing up the evidence to arrive at a reasoned conclusion. I would have no way of knowing if any ideas are true or false, they would just BE and I couldn't discriminate between them.
So, if free will doesn't exist I would have no way of knowing that it doesn't. If free will or free thought does exist, it doesn't necessarily need to belong to a self, it could just be a function of the organism like hearing or breathing. Which is not to say I can prove that freedom does exist, if I come up with a good demonstration of that I'll be sure to let you know!
Nick.
