Is free will an illusion?
If every event is the consequence of prior causes, can human choice ever be truly free — or is the experience of agency a useful fiction?
Free will is a genuine capacity to choose otherwise.
Free will is a useful illusion shaped by prior causes.
Arguments
3 totalRound 1
Conscious deliberation is not mere epiphenomenon. When I weigh reasons and act, the act traces to my reasoning — that is what 'free' means in any meaningful sense, regardless of prior causes.
Champion — the laurel stands until a stronger point outvotes it.
Compatibilism redefines 'free' to mean 'uncoerced', not 'uncaused'. But the folk intuition people defend is the latter — the power to have done otherwise in the exact same prior universe. That power is what determinism removes.
Round 2
Even under indeterminism, randomness is not freedom either. So 'could have done otherwise' may simply be the wrong yardstick. Freedom is better measured by whether the agent's own reasons caused the act — and they did.