John Horgan at his own website:
Horgan: I believe in free will, and it distresses me that you don’t. Can you give me one reason why I shouldn’t believe in free will?
Hofstadter: One does what one’s desires determine one to do. I, like everyone else, am filled with conflicting desires, and they fight it out inside my brain, and the fight’s winner determines what I will do. Last weekend, for instance, I was of two minds about whether or not to go to the “No Kings” demonstration here in Bloomington. Part of me wanted very much to be part of the collective action against all the forces of evil that have taken over this country, but another part of me wanted very much to work on a personal project that is super-important to me. These forces inside me battled, and in the end, the go-to-the-rally force just barely beat out the work-on-your-project force, and so I went (and I’m glad I did). I “decided” to do so in the sense that the two above-described intense desires battled it out inside of me, and the stronger of them won. There was no freedom there; it was just a battle to see which desire was stronger. (In case you want to read more on this, I spell these ideas out somewhat more fully in Chapter 23 of I Am a Strange Loop.)
More here.
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