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Compatibilism and Conscious Will

Publication at Faculty of Science |
2015

Abstract

Daniel Dennett's compatibilism based on redefining free will via broadening the concept of self to include unconscious processes seems to disappoint certain intuitions. As Sam Harris points out, it changes the subject from the free will we seem to intuitively care about - conscious free will.

This compatibilism is untenable since conscious will seems to be an illusion. However, if we take Dennett's idea of ""atmosphere of free will"" and view conscious will as an important concept or ""user illusion"" which is one of the atmosphere's building blocks, we can see how a new compatibilism could be reached.

Although from the point of view of scientific thinking conscious will seems illusory, inspired by Wilfrid Sellars's conception of manifest and scientific images we can start to understand free will as existing on its own conceptual level. The confusion stems from mixing the two frameworks.