Compatibilists: Did free will evolve through biological evolution?

No, he's just reasonably struggling to figure out what you're after and how you are defining things.

Okay well I've now defined as clearly as I can what is and isn't a "direct result" of evolution. I hope that clears things up enough to be able to answer the question.

Everything humans are and can do is evolved insofar as everything humans are and do arises from our physiology which arose through evolutionary processes. My capacity to write poems is evolved. How good a poet I am may be trained.

Yes but actually writing a poem requires knowledge outside of the DNA you're assigned at birth. The reason I'm trying to make that clear is because the other argument at hand is that free will could be learned, just like the ability to write poetry. I'm not arguing that the capacity to write poetry isn't evolved.

The willing nature of humans (unless it is supernatural) is an evolved capacity.

If it is, that still doesn't answer when and where it evolved, and more importantly why we can safely say it hasn't necessarily evolved in other species.

/r/askphilosophy Thread Parent