Original scientific paper

Complex Freedom

Davor Pećnjak orcid.org/0000-0001-9506-053X ; (a) Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, (b) Department of Philosophy, Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb

Abstract

We have a very strong intuition and a very strong feeling that we, as human beings, generally have freedom of the will and freedom of the action. It seems that in most situations we can do this or that; namely, we can do action A or we can refrain from doing action A under the same conditions. The view which argues that this is not an illusion and that we have genuine freedom is the libertarian view. I would like to examine could that view be plausible under scientific understanding of the world. It seems that physical sciences strongly support determinism. Chaos theory and indeterminism in quantum mechanics could not save freedom because chaos is a deterministic theory and indeterminate events in quantum mechanics happen by pure chance. Pure chance is not something we want as freedom. But, perhaps, we can have freedom reconciled (although maybe in a restricted form) if actions or decisions can be described by equations which allow more than one solution and if these solutions can be interpreted as refering to different contents of the will or to different actions.

Keywords

free will; determinism; libertarianism; chaos theory; complexity

Hrčak ID:

76800

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/76800

Publication date:

3.7.2009.

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