Re: Philosophy Blog: FREE WILL

A response to the questioning of free will by burnvictim77.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• freewill
• indeterminism
• predestination
• calvin
• philosopher
• destiny
• god
• fate
• freesouljah
• life
• philosophy
• discussion

[chigen5]

anybody know what song is playing right at the end of this?

[freesouljah]

"Don't Let Me Down" by the Beatles...from a live performance...

[Stunt2009]

Well I'd have to say everyone has free will. You can do whatever you want but then there are other humans that will supply you with consequence. The most f*cked up thing about this planet is the fact one human can lock another up for life. I'd say everyone should remain neutral and worry about themselves. Because afterall, the only person one can improve is themselves.

[freesouljah]

and improving yourself might take many lifetimes...

thank you for sharing man... 8D

[skulldaggery]

more over...

We don't even know what the mind is... how can we even agree on whether it works with cause or effect or not? how can we even begin to be bothered with the idea, when we still know relatively nothing of this system we work within? how can a caveman tell you what a microchip is for when he doesn't even know

[freesouljah]

through discovery...if we don't at least try to figure it out...then we are letting the opportunity go to waste...

[sicktoaster]

that the question "Do we have free will or is it determinism?" is itself a false question.

[sicktoaster]

And therefore every choice we make is in some way a product of circumstances.

BUT it is impossible to ever reach a point where an individual or even society will be able to predict these circumstances fully.

And since at the quantum level there are so many fluctuations in spacetime it's possible that the choice determines the circumstances just as much as the circumstances determine the choices.

Hence, the whole free will vs. determinism question is inherently impossible to solve ever, meaning..

[sicktoaster]

All arguments about free will are really arguments over the semantics of "free will".

Can people make choices? Yes.

Do people make choices without there being some sort of influence on their choices? No.

Are these influences always perceptible? No.

Are the same influences always perceptible to the same observers? No.

Is it ever possible to know 100% what influences are contributing to our choices? No. For that to happen you would need to be hard-wired to the entire space-time of the Universe.

[shineforce]

this man reminds me of jack sparrow lol irony--free will, jack sparrow is the opposite of that becuz he constant chained to his desires XD

[tolstoythegreat]

the answer to the question is to stop asking

[thetubemeister]

Yeah it's an interesting discussion, I'm guessing that when you refer to the fact that there are so many concepts against the idea of free will/choice you are referring to determinism, in all honesty I find such lines of thought slightly over simplified and impractical, evasive even, that ignores how convoluted a discussion of freewill inherently is...Ultimately it depends on your perspective, the narrower the perspective, the more 'solid' boundaries there are to keep certain premises plausible.

[moegreen2]

3. (posted backwards) I think our actions are based on values and programming, but dose that make my freedom of choice less? I don't think so. I can act on impulses, and so on. But it makes me watch what values to adopt and not a bit more. Here is a good belief; always change to the better for yourself and your family. You can adopt this belief or not (but you don't have a choice? So u might need to read the sentence many times if you want it to work?)

[moegreen2]

. Please, don't use the god card, you should be able to defend philosophy with reason, if not, it's faith? To me, the idea of free will seems like a paradox. Why would we choose something other than the best choice? That would be stupid? So why would we need free will? And would not that make us very random and chaotic?