Free Will vs. Determinism

Looking to get a little philosophy discussion going here, based on the writings of Daniel C. Dennett. Sorry for the shoddy quality, this is my first attempt at a video!
EDIT: I have gotten dozens of comments and questions within the past week asking me why I haven't made another video since this one. I've already answered this a few times and will not be responding personally to them any longer, so read carefully--
#1-- I'm a college kid. I don't have time for these fo'dangled videos.
#2-- This was an experiment.
#3-- I have posted other videos in the past, and have since taken them down because they were more personal, and were a tool of mine while I was fighting through some issues.
#4-- I run Linux now, and haven't gotten around to finding a compatible webcam.
#5-- I have been predetermined to be a lazy sod.

Thank you!

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• philo
• philosophy
• free
• will
• determinism
• libertarianism
• freedom
• evolves
• daniel
• dennett
• discussion
• think
• critical
• evolution

[Clear404]

Moral obligations presuppose free will. So if you think we have moral obligations to one another, then you are committed, on pain of inconsistency, to admitting that we have free will.

If it turns out that determinism is true, then you must admit that free will is compatible with determinism. Which it is. Free will INVOLVES causation- it involves one's character (namely, 'you') causing your decisions in the appropriate way. Determinism is no threat to free will.

[OrionsChild]

@Clear404 Our sense of morality CAN be predetermined by external forces. As children, our primary influence of morality comes from family/guardians. As we grow and mature, we also bring new experiences into our lives, many of which can challenge our current views. With access to the internet these days, kids are able to see many different viewpoints and opinions than their own, impacting their own moral core at a much earlier age. Whether they hold to family morals is determined by upbringing.

[OrionsChild]

@Clear404 An overbearing family unit will be much harder to challenge than a free-spirited family which encourages an open mind. For those with a sheltered childhood like my own, the catharsis of getting out and seeing all of the different views on moral issues, politics, and even religion caused an abrupt 180 to the beliefs we'd first been taught by our family.

[DougCameraMan]

Thoughts, are in fact, determined by past experiences, and our desires, which you alluded to in your video. So to be truly free, and not influenced in any decision, it must be a totally random decision not based on anything. A goldfish kept in a fish bowl for years and then released into the Pacific ocean may think he is free to swim anywhere he wants, but, in reality, the goldfish is limited in where he can swim even though he may think he swim anywhere. So it is with our imagined free will.

[OrionsChild]

@DougCameraMan  What a lovely analogy. Thank you for your input!

[OrionsChild]

@IronicKismet I am predetermined by my genetics to think that having one eyebrow which arcs and one which arches is absolutely unacceptable. I've also drawn from previous experience and concluded that walking around town WITHOUT having drawn on my eyebrows solicits some excellent double-takes from other individuals. I will not change myself just to appease a digital audience. Now you have a chance to draw from THIS experience and think before criticizing for trivial bullshit. Life? Altered.

[VTAcraft]

@Clear404 This doesn't make sense to me. Free will, to me, means that individuals have the ability to alter reality itself—to change their fate, if you will.

If all of reality is simply cause and effect, then individuals have no such ability. So, unless you're employing a different, qualified definition of "free will", I don't see how you can say that determinism and free will are compatible.

[SERSOVI]

I think:

Free will just does exist as a mere illusion.

The deterministic world work should just affect our behaviour in one point, since there is nothing to do agaist the "implacable" reallity, we must learn to cope with it. But this does not freeds us from our moral and social responsabilities. These are also determinated from our previous evolution... in fact... it does not matter what we do. The world will go further as is is caused to be.

[Qntkka]

I am preparing to make a video argueing that Free Will does exist. The problem I see for making a case against freewill is largely, one of semantics. I may have this wrong; determinists believe in causality, contingency, programming, and experiencial input, but not in randomness. Randomness is defined as not having a "Specific" plan. If the "plan" is invisible to us, is it not random?

[Wharwulif]

No difference in my case =P

If I act without any ration,then I like what this random thing called "me" has tried to become,yet failed.

If I act WITH ration either based on free will or result of many many things-Then I followed the best way I can.

Overall,We were formed by this eventually random event called "existence",our very essence were made by the patterns caused by this event,and we base ourselves eventually by what our senses get and how our mind is decoding it all,using worldly meaning