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From: minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Subject: "Free" Will
Message-ID: <1996Jan31.181414.24393@media.mit.edu>
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In article <4entpj$n55@brtph500.bnr.ca> Steve Glymph <glymph@bnr.ca> writes:

>From Websters Dictionary
[...]

>Free Will   - The power, attributed esp. to human beings, of making free
>              choices unconstrained by external circumstances or necessity.

  Of course, the issue is whether there's any meaning to the idea of
  making choices unconstrained by *internal* circumstances or necessity.

In this sense, that dictionary misses the central issue--is there
something beyond both your brain and the world outside it that makes
tour decisions.  And, whatever *that* is, are you also "free" of it?
If so, are you then the helpless pawn of of a possibly malevolent
soul?
