Audacity wrote:Now all this may sound to some far out, and results of QM do seem astounding, and yet it is what it is. BUT, surely it isn't as far out as rejected that we aren't determined products of a physical world such that we must completely reject free will, and along with it concepts that would be illusory such as "morality", "responsibility", "justice", "fairness", "love", "goodness" and any other feature that would require free will.
I think you may have a typo here, which make it dificult to pin down what you're saying.
I believe you're right. Let me re-word, and that add some.
Surely it isn't as far out (believing that mind has a causal effect upon physical world structures), than believing something that goes against all our intuition -- that we don't have any free will or choice. If we reject "free will" than so too all those other concepts humanity has just intuitively come to accept such as "morality", "responsibility", "justice", "fairness", "love", "goodness" and any other feature that would require free will. It just seems to much to lose what seems so obvious, all because we must remain loyal to physicalism.
In other words, the physical world doesn't just determine us, but we -- consciousness -- also determine the physical world. This is also supported, for example, with those who suffer a stroke and lose motor functions. Yet, through their
will, exercises and hard work, their brain is able to re-map new pathways to give them the desired result they're trying to achieve. Mind over matter. Matter is important, because it's our interface with the physical world, and our physical bodies. Yet, the matter is just a tool of the mind. An extension of such, rather than the physicalist approach where the mind is an extension of the brain.
Now, whether or not you agree, and I doubt you will, at least this is how free will can actually be
logically possible. We need to be able to rise above the mechanical process, control the physical to some degree. Such I believe has support in QM, as well as certain cognitive scientific studies, people who have little brain matter, and NDEs where the brain stops functioning yet the person is still conscious.
Such does not immediately mean "soul" but rather that consciousness just taking on a new form at death. Some ideas being theorised are that something happens on a quantum level, there's some binding that happens with consciousness and the physical body its coiled with. When that physical structure dies e.g., the brain, uncoiling happens and consciousness starts transitioning into a different state. When a person is revived, the mind returns to the body it is coiled with. I'm not saying this is how it is, but science has provided some new possible and interesting insights.
Really, given how little we know about how consciousness works, or why it even appears at all, no one can seriously close the door on free will. Unless they're adamantly decided that physicalism is it. Keep in mind physicalism is derived somewhat from materialism but just has physical laws added to it. Physicalism is therefore considered the new Naturalism. But, what if "Nature" also has a third dynamic, which isn't so mechanical, one which we experience everyday and see in other living lifeforms -- consciousness?
