It remained for William James, Peirce's close friend, to assert that CHANCE CAN
PROVIDE unpredictable alternatives from which THE WILL CAN CHOOSE or determine
one alternative. James was the first thinker to enunciate clearly a two-stage
decision process, with CHANCE in a present time of random alternatives, LEADING
TO A CHOICE which selects one alternative and transforms an equivocal ambiguous
future into an unalterable determined past. There are undetermined alternatives
followed by adequately determined choices."The stronghold of the determinist
argument is the antipathy to the idea of chance...This notion of alternative
possibility, this admission that any one of several things may come to pass is,
after all, only a roundabout name for CHANCE...What is meant by saying that my
CHOICE of which way to walk home after the lecture is ambiguous and matter of
chance?...It means that both Divinity Avenue and Oxford Street are called but
only one, and that one either one, shall be CHOSEN." (James, The Dilemma of
Determinism, in The Will to Believe, 1897, p.155)
We find that William James was the first of a dozen philosophers and scientists
who have proposed a two-stage model for free will and creativity. The first
stage involves chance that generates alternative possibilities for action. The
second stage is an adequately determined choice by the will. First chance, then
choice. First "free," then "will."
JAMESIAN FREE WILL, THE TWO-STAGE MODEL OF WILLIAM JAMES
__________________________________________________________________BOB
DOYLEABSTRACT Research into two-stage models of “free will” – first “free”
random generation of alternativepossibilities, followed by “willed” adequately
determined decisions consistent with character, values, and desires – suggests
that William James was in 1884 the first of a dozen philosophers and scientists
to propose such a two-stage model for free will. We review the later work to
establish James’s priority.By limiting chance to the generation of alternative
possibilities, James was the first to overcome the standard two-part argument
against free will, i.e., that the will is either determined or random. James
gave it elements of both, to establish freedom but preserve responsibility. We
show that James was influenced by Darwin’s model of natural selection, as were
most recent thinkers with a two-stage model.In view of James’s famous decision
to make his first act of freedom a choice to believe that his will is free, it
is most fitting to celebrate James’s priority in the free will debates by
naming the two-stage model – first chance, then choice -“Jamesian” free will.
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
