Free “Will”

They say we are endowed with free will. At least that justifies our need for indecision.[1]

One impediment to modelling what gets termed ‘free will’ is the use of the word ‘will’, which characterises the phenomenon in terms a “faculty” or “power” of the “mind”. For example, the Macquarie Dictionary (1992: 2000) includes the following definitions of ‘will’:

1. the faculty of conscious and esp. of deliberate action: the freedom of the will.
2. the power of choosing ones own actions: to have a strong or a weak will.
3. the act of using this power.

The following discussion will attempt to identify and integrate some of the dimensions involved in behavioural choice, semiotic or otherwise.


Footnote:

[1] Peter Hammill ‘The Comet, The Course, The Tail’.