Indeed, they both can't be correct, the libertarian view is grounded on the idea that compatiblism is impossible. As for the libertarian view, I agree there are issues with the mechanics of it. For choice to exist in the libertarian sense, we must have a soul, or something that allows for decision making to take place above the purely scientific/biological view of how our brains work (well I'm pretty ignorant of the biological side, but I would guess it supports determinism with our brains working by signals with one inevitably determining the next, I could of course be completely, embrassingly wrong).
But I think PVC's argument here in defense of the libertarian view is more on the grounds of its necessity from a philosophical perspective with its relation to morality and responsibility etc, as opposed to laying out the actual mechanics of how it works.
I agree, that this dispute is best resolved now, since otherwise it's going to be impossible for people to understand each other. I agree that your definition of free will is the sum of the freedom which our will's possess in reality btw, but I see this as supporting purely determinsim and not free will (since I hold to the libertarian defintion of the term, which is how it has been traditionally used). I think we have the same ideas, but are just using different words for them.
But does responsbility require the subjection of lesser beings to greater realities? Can only a follower of evil be responsible for his actions, as opposed to the source of the evil itself?
This is why I think your response to the Gnostic god issue is quite unusual. If one god is the source of all evil, the self-evident, self-perpetuating root of all evil - why should it be looked upon more kindly than one of its followers?
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