Events without causes - stochastic events
A poster commenting on the 'Events without causes' suggests that stochastic events allow the possibility of freewill and choice. Because stochastic events are dictated by probabilities, there is no way that you can predict what will happen by mechanistic models. While it is true that it is non-mechanistic a stochastical event is still predetermined.
A stochastic event has a certain probability of happening, or not happening. Or there may be a number of distinct events each with their own possibility of happening. Heads or tails? But the event IS determined (to be result A or result B, or somewhere within that range of results.
The fact that events can be probabilistic may seem to allow the possibility of free will or choosing between events, but to me, this seems unlikely. We can conceive of will being able to choose between possibilities, but overall probabilistic events must average out to what is predicted by the laws of probability. So choice is not free - it has to come out in a predicted range or it has to be one of a finite set of possibilities.
It may be argued that choice is free within those bounds - but that is also not true. The overall outcomes must resulting in known spread of occurences and you are not able to choose a possibility such that the end results are skewed. Stochastic Man is just as constrained as Deterministic Man.
In any case, it is hard to see a mechanism by which making a choice can have an effect on the probability of an outcome anyway.
A stochastic event has a certain probability of happening, or not happening. Or there may be a number of distinct events each with their own possibility of happening. Heads or tails? But the event IS determined (to be result A or result B, or somewhere within that range of results.
The fact that events can be probabilistic may seem to allow the possibility of free will or choosing between events, but to me, this seems unlikely. We can conceive of will being able to choose between possibilities, but overall probabilistic events must average out to what is predicted by the laws of probability. So choice is not free - it has to come out in a predicted range or it has to be one of a finite set of possibilities.
It may be argued that choice is free within those bounds - but that is also not true. The overall outcomes must resulting in known spread of occurences and you are not able to choose a possibility such that the end results are skewed. Stochastic Man is just as constrained as Deterministic Man.
In any case, it is hard to see a mechanism by which making a choice can have an effect on the probability of an outcome anyway.
posted by Barzoomian at 2:01 PM
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