2 Answers

  1. In my answer, I will rely on the book “Theories of Consciousness” by Stephen Priest, and I recommend it as an overview of the issue.�

    First, what is dualism?

    Dualism is the theory that there are two, and only two, kinds of substances: consciousness and physical objects.

    The most famous dualists are Plato and Descartes, but not only they, there are also modern representatives. At the same time, within dualism, there are many different versions of ideas about what consciousness is and how consciousness causally interacts with the body (in no way/in both directions/in one of the sides).

    Even at this point, it is clear to me personally that dualism itself does not correlate in any way with a specific position about free will – you can be a dualist and recognize it, you can be a dualist and deny it.

    I would venture to suggest that the question may have grown out of Leibniz's famous analogy, where, while defending the absence of causal connections between consciousness and body, he describes them as clocks wound up by the divine will so as to go in unison – and this analogy really strongly pushes us to deny free will, if we assume that determinism is incompatible with free will.�

    Leibniz has a rather complex concept that tries to reconcile free will with predestination, and I only got a cursory introduction to it while I was writing my answer. It is probably unsuccessful, but it is clear from it that he did not deny free will.

  2. Any statement about “God”, about an omnipotent omniscient Creator without whose will not a hair will fall, immediately contradicts free will.

    Therefore, ideologues from religion are forced in every possible way to get rid of and invent interpretations, which is ridiculous – because freedom either exists or does not exist.

    If the will of man is free from the plans and designs of an omnipotent, omniscient God, then God simply does not exist.

    The idea that God “voluntarily” ceases to plan the fate of his creations directly contradicts the concept of a “Creator” who knows everything in advance and creates completely “perfectly”, ideally, absolutely. And of course, creation cannot behave “outside the framework, outside the will, outside the plans” of such a perfect absolute Creator.

    So either there is no God or there is no free will )) And how “dualism” relates to the idea of “God” depends on the specific preachers of dualism.

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