[net.philosophy] Dennett and Indeterminism

tmoody@sjuvax.UUCP (T. Moody) (10/28/85)

[]
I number of people have argued that indeterminism is at least a
necessary condition for free will.  That is, one condition of a
system's having free will is that its past states are not related to
ints present states deterministically.

I have recently reread an article by Daniel Dennett in which he
develops a fairly straightforward thesis of this sort.  I am referring
to "On Giving Libertarians What They Say They Want," included in
_Brainstorms_ (Bradford, 1978).  It's a fairly short piece, and it's
very clearly written.  Many of the same points are made in his more
recent _Elbow_Room_, but personally I think his style has not
benefitted by his association with Hofstadter; I can take only so much
cuteness.

Dennett