Can determinism be consistent with human freewill? - discuss?

Question

Science (traditionally) says that a specific action (cause) will always result in the same reaction (effect) - think of billiard balls, for example...if you hit EXACTLY the same shot, the same thing will happen.
Take this down to the atomic level or whatever, and everything that's ever happened to a person HAD to happen that way because of everything that led up to it. Even one's decisions at each moments were determined by the state of neurons etc.
(I know I'm not being rigorous or eloquent here, but I hope you get the idea.)

So...you could not have made a different choice, you just felt like you could.

So where is freewill?

Answer 1

The power that powers the desire to hit the billiards ball is the element is free will !
The being !
Acceptance of having already powered releases a person from the intensity of impact of consequence(I do not deny the material consequences, the impact of it on self, which varies the matrix duplication, multiplication and such complexities !).
Acceptance is a sort of total surrender to gain total freedom, and to free the will !
But all this is experiential, and cannot be explained logically !
Only a deeper perception capability (beyond sense organs) can give insight to newer levels of consciousness !

Answer 2

In Scientific Determinism there is no Free Will. But just for arguments sake (and also because I like the idea of being free) even though the minutest choices are determined by causality, each minute change or angle can change the sequence of events in such a way that it inturn leads to a different set of choices, which taken as a chain reaction may lead to a drastic change. I am arguing a hopeless case here. Good question.

Answer 3

You might want to read a book by a philosopher named Daniel C. Dennett, called 'Freedom Evolves.' The main thrust of the book is that free will is completely compatible with a scientific, cause-and-effect worldview. It's been a few years since I read it, and I forget quite a few of the key points of his argument.

Now to my thoughts. When you get down to the subatomic realm, you can't think in terms of absolutes (as in, 'the electron is definitely here') but in probabilities (as in 'the electron has an 83% chance of existing within this space at this time.') Therefore, you have rigorous tests in physics where no matter how finely you tune the initial conditions, you end up with result X half the time, and result Y the other time. It's not a failure in instrumentation, but a physical fact of the subatomic realm.

This means that, even if we are slaves to our subatomic overlords, 'science' cannot predict for certain what our behaviors will be. All it could do is present it in terms of probabilities.

But that's not a satisfying sort of free will to have. It would be like hooking my brain up to a random number generator that somehow controlled my behavior. What you're looking for is an explanation for that sense people have, the one that tells them 'I just made that decision.' Is it an illusion to keep us from going crazy?

I don't think it is. But I think a lot of confusion arises because people try and make a distinction between 'themselves' and their brains. In truth, there is no such distinction. If we are our brains, and our brains are physical matter, then that matter is behaving in accordance with the physical laws governing all matter.

Which makes it sound like we are, once again, not in control.

My feeling is that many people who reject the idea of determinism believe that, if they live in a deterministic world with deterministic brains, then they are incapable of fixing the behaviors they don't like about themselves. But that's not true. With effort, you can change your brain, train it to do new things and not to do old things (within reason). But you have to make the decision to do so.

The question of whether you had a choice in making that decision is an academic one. But as a practical matter, if you ever find yourself saying, 'Gee, I'd like to decide to do that, but my deterministic brain won't let me,' then it's not your deterministic brain that's holding you back. Jettison your philosophical musings and get to reprogramming the blasted thing. :)

Answer 4

There is also nonlinear branch of science when things go chaotic and unpredictable. Eg. dripping faucet, quantum mechanics.

Like many things in science, there is a limit of the range where the theory is useful and predictable, outside of it, it is not. It is likely that's how freewill works. Especially do to our limited ability and range of control.

You may control your immediate thoughts or action through your entire life, but the cosmic may according to other laws do something to earth which affect you in the higher order. The virus in your body could also do something to a cell in your body which affect you. Both are examples of how your freewill is affected by other things outside of your range of control.

The fact that you or any of us does not exist alone in the environment creates conditions when results are not determined by one agent, but by many according to many different freewill. So whose freewill is in control when we have conflicting aims?

Can determinism be consistent with human freewill? I think so, but only with co-operations of different freewill agents of different levels and done according to the related laws of physics/universe. One example of this would be the traffic. Almost everyone has different destinations, but we drive according to more or less the same rules. It works relatively well. Stability of it is very fragile. Different freewill, laws all work together in different levels and scales. It is going home for you, but economics for the country, both at work.

Answer 5

just destiny..no freewill