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Originally Posted by Hail Eris
This thread is pretty long. Can't I have a primer?
For some reasons I won't get into, I'm compelled to feel kind-hearted today, so I will step in and try to help.
Determinism means that every effect is caused. Every little thing that happens, happens because it was made to be so due entirely to prior events.
Free will means that things (usually people) are able to act without regard to prior events to at least some extent. In other words, they have a degree of freedom to not follow the rules of cause and effect.
These two things are not compatible, even though the compatibilists state that they are compatible.
1) all things are perfectly caused
2) some things are not perfectly caused
3) WTF?!?
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Why is "volitional control" a bad notion of free will?
Volitional control is fine. But if you mean it to mean something about free will, you can't just limit it to freedom from current outside forces. You must also include freedom from your character, internal states, etc.
Mostly, people use volitional control to mean "I live a rich and important internal life filled with decision making based at least partly on my character and am not unduly influenced by the outside world. No one forces me to do what I don't want to do. I do what I want to do to some extent"* and forget that "what I want" and "character" are things that were caused.
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My understanding is that compatibilism just says determinism is irrelevant wrt free will, not that it's true.
Not really important, as they are spending their time arguing that the two things are compatible. You won't find any compatibilists who think that determinism isn't true afaik.
*A much shorter version is "I make my own decisions."