The article addresses the issue of free will and determinism through a discussion of Newcomb’s paradox, presented as a dialogue between the spirits of Lady Luck and Fate. I argue that commitment to determinism, which is suggested by materialist metaphysics, is in contradiction with our experience of freedom of choice. Newcomb’s paradox describes the dilemma of choosing between either one or two boxes in order to maximise the quantity of money these boxes contain, which has been determined by the machine predicting what your decision will be. The character of Heather, faced with this dilemma, symbolizes humanity grappling with the issue of free will in the face of determinism. I claim that our experience of freedom prevents us from believing that determinism is true when we properly reflect on the issue, just as Heather could not believe in determinism when she had to make the choice in the situation described in the paradox.
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
