Takács, Izolda (2024) One Approach to the Necessary Conditions of Free Will – Logical Paradox and the Essential Unpredictability of Physical Agents. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Even today, we lack a precise definition of free will and continue to rely primarily on intuitions about what it might entail. This paper therefore takes a negative approach to the problem. It introduces a dramatic scenario – scientific determinism – in which free will could not possibly exist, and then seeks to refute this view by exposing a logical contradiction: the paradox of predictability. If scientific determinism necessarily entails a reality in which free will is impossible, then refuting scientific determinism is a necessary condition for the possibility of free will. The paradox shows that self-prediction (P = C) by a physical agent (P) is objectively impossible. That is, even an agent governed entirely by deterministic processes cannot predict its own future states – not even in an abstract, Platonic sense.
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Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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Keywords: | Free will, necessary condition, paradox of predictability, Gödel, Turing, halting problem, logical paradox | ||||||
Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Logical Positivism/Logical Empiricism |
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Depositing User: | Dr. Izolda Takacs | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 09 Jul 2025 13:13 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 09 Jul 2025 13:13 | ||||||
Item ID: | 25913 | ||||||
Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Logical Positivism/Logical Empiricism |
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Date: | March 2024 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25913 |
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