George Ellis stated much the same thing when he noted, in Einstein’s denial of free will, that if Einstein did not have free will in some meaningful sense, then he could not have been responsible for the theory of relativity – it would have been a product of lower level processes but not of an intelligent mind choosing between possible options. … More.
See also: How can we believe in naturalism if we have no choice?
and
Nature, as defined today, cannot be all there is. Science demonstrates that.
Good to know he is doing well.
I don’t know why philosophers keep chewing on this old question. Every answer is circular and tautologous, therefore it’s not worth worrying about.
If you saw the science fiction movie “Arrival”, you might be interested in reading the short story “The Story of Your Life”, by Ted Chiang, upon which “Arrival” is based. (A link to a short 32- page pdf is at the bottom of this post.) “The Story of Your Life” has some very interesting things to say about free will, teleology, and language.
So, without any other comment, I offer some quotes as food for thought. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll know some context, but even if you haven’t you might be interested, and motivated to see the movie and/or read the story.
http://discours.philol.msu.ru/.....20Life.pdf
Determinism makes no sense, whatsoever. Life, intelligence, personhood (personal will), are all inextricably interconnected, as is the nature of their creator as an omniscient, omnipotent godhead integrally predicated.