2) We have no control over our beliefs. Whether something makes sense to us, or does not make sense to us, is a function of our intelligence, knowledge, bias, access to information, time and life space to digest information, social influences, etc. We have no control over our intelligence, knowledge, bias, access to information, time and life space to digest information, social influences, etc.
We have no control over our beliefs about whether we should challenge our beliefs, investigate them, or how we should go about doing so. Investigating one's beliefs requires humility, and we have no control over our humility. We have no control over our arrogance, or humility, expressed by our excessive confidence, or lack thereof, in our beliefs. We have no control over whether we believe we are, or are not, arrogant in our beliefs.
3) Therefore, we have no control over our actions. (modus tollens)
Compatibilists might deny 1 and say as long as we act according to compatibilist conditions of freedom then our actions are free in the relevant sense.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can compatibilist-proof the argument this way:
1) If my desires, second-order desires, sensitivity to reasons, standards of right and wrong, and whatever else compatibilist conditions of freedom depend crucially on something I do not control, then I do not control my actions.
2) My desires, second-order desires, sensitivity to reasons, standards of right and wrong, and whatever else compatibilist conditions of freedom depend crucially on my beliefs...
and now it's a manipulation argument where our beliefs are the manipulator