Another post from Ghenadie Mardari:
"Dear Gardeners:
I would like to thank all of you who replied to my previous post (Ghenadie
Mardari on free will).
http://gfp.typepad.com/the_garden_of_forking_pat/2008/11/ghenadie-mardari-on-free-will.html
Your comments and questions helped me advance a little farther in my work
on free will.
This time, I would like to bring to your attention a very short paper (8
double-spaced pages), in which I summarize my current position on this
issue. I have come to the conclusion that modern debates on free will
focus too much on the “free” part, and not enough on the “will” part. The
will is a concept that only makes sense in a (more or less) dualistic
picture. Mind and matter are supposed to be functionally independent, at
least when the initiation of action is expected to take place. Will is the
property that mediates between them. In other words, the body is like a
machine, and the mind can push its buttons through the “magic” of the
will.
I wish to suggest that the will, so defined, can be described as free
without running into conceptual problems. It leads to an understanding of
agency and responsibility that resonates with our intuitions and social
practices. In the final analysis, the only problem is physicalism.
The text can be found here:
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~ghena/thesis/Ch.III/Wil4will.pdf
Thank you,
Ghenadie"