Incompatibilism

Based on our discussions yesterday, I am coming to the conclusion that I am an incompatibilist. Determinism seems to me to be a pretty legitimate position. Although it is far too broad of a concept for us to attempt to understand, I think that it makes sense. I think that the major obstacle for us in understanding determinism is how vast the information seems. As Professor Johnson noted yesterday, determinism does not mean predictability. Although I believe that if we had the information described by determinism, we could predict the future, it will never be within our reach. So determinists do not think that they can predict the future, but what will be will be. This is pretty creepy when it comes to our own thoughts. We think of our minds as the last frontier, a space completely to ourselves that nobody can access, yet determinism states that if there was enough knowledge, our thoughts would be predictable. This is where the free will argument comes in. They think that our thoughts are our own and that we can change our mind at any moment and throw off the "determined" outcome. My view on this is that free will is an illusion. If determinism is correct in saying that there could be a level of information so great that thoughts were already set, we could say that we knew when someone was going to change their mind, we could expect the unexpected. For this reason I think that free will is just an illusion caused by determinism. This being said, I think that this illusion is incredibly important to our existence. If we did not think that we had the ability to write our own futures, many would find life pointless. This idea of free will keeps people motivated despite the fact that is an illusion.