I've been reading about this and several of the thinkers who were determinists struggled with depression and existential crises because they thought determinism rendered their lives impotent and purposeless. In my experience as well, in college classrooms or conversations where this debate comes up, the people who lean more towards determinism don't seem as happy as those who lean towards free will. However, I often find that determinists are better at logically defending their position than the free will people. Do you think this is a common thing? Do you think determism is just too depressing for many people to believe in?
2007-03-07 06:15:09 · 5 answers · asked by Subconsciousless 7 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I think free will is popular because it SEEMS to everybody that they have it. After all, if you ask anyone after just about any decision if they could have chosen to do something different, just about anyone will say yes.
The problem is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to produce a test to determine if this is so. Such a test would require that EVERYTHING be identical, or else even minor factors might have influenced and changed the outcome. How can you reset someone's brain chemistry? You can't.
Even if you could produce such a test, it wouldn't necessarily tell you anything. If we assume a person is free-willed, there is nothing preventing them from ALWAYS making the same choice. In other words, even if you came up with an experimental framework, you could never prove the free will was absent. Conversely, how could anyone distinguish between a willed behaviour and a random one? Do coins land on heads because they WANT to? The only reason we don't believe so is because they don't seem to have any cognition at all.
Thus I think free will is a lot like an oasis. It's something that everyone can see, but it's a concept with no actual substance. This makes it popular, whether or not it has any kind of practicality.
2007-03-07 07:09:54 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I can't believe the determinist folks could be better at defending their point of view.
Even if determinism were correct, the silly humans have no clue what the final outcome will be so worrying about and being depressed about determinism is an abject waste of time.
Free will seems to be the only logical way to go. Sure Nurture and Nature play a role in what you decide, but you ultimately decide. No way would I believe a baby born as a tabla rasa would end up to be a mass murderer and this was predetermined.
One of the bigger obstacles Free Will has to deal with is the fact that Free Will can't co-exist with an omnipotent super-being, once you get past that issue it is all good.
2007-03-07 06:29:35 · answer #2 · answered by zaphodsclone 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
free will has nothing to do with god or with heavens...
Man is condemned to make a choice in every second of his life. Some choices are good for him and some arent. Whether he is fully aware of the consequences of his choices is more important than whether he has free will or not. He may sincerely think that the option he chooses is good for him and for mankind but it may come out the other way around. At such cases he cant be held responsible. The problem is that most of our choices are made in full ignorance of the consequences. and god doesnt exist
2007-03-10 03:40:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are two options
1.To be logically consistent, for one to be a Materialistic Evolutionist is to HAVE to be a determinist...it's sort of determined. Since there is nothing outside of nature, nature just made me think that. It's essentially a logical argument against the possibility of logic. It kills itself. I'm not surprised the people who subscribe to it do the same. I know I was heading that direction when I used to believe it.
2. It could be that to believe that man is created in Gods image and so we are free moral agents as a Divine gift could produce greater happiness simply because it's true. To fault a car because it runs poorly on silly putty is well... silly. Creations malfunction when improperly used. Cars need gasoline, and people need Truth. If God is good, and he designed creatures to be happy, then should it then be surprising if the Truth produces happiness? Of course I’m not saying that all thoughts that make us happy are Truth. But that still leaves the possibility that, true thoughts, even if not at first, ultimately,make us happy.
A friend of mine gave me this advice a few years back when in conversation I had mentioned several famous people whom I admired but they all killed themselves.
"Never take advise about life from someone who couldn’t even handle being alive."- James Bennett
By the way about the supposed "contradiction" of having free-will and All Knowing All Powerful God.
1. If God is all Powerful, then it's within His power to grant free will and make that not contradict His Power.
2. Just because God is all knowing, that does NOT determine what you will do, it simply means He KNOWS what you are going to do. Foreknowledge is not causative. Ie. Watching a videotape of last years super bowl does not determine who won. Neither would, if it were possible, watching a video tape of next years super bowl determine anything. It would simply be a recording of the events as they happened.
In the Bible, God makes it a point of saying that the future (for good or evil) of every nation and person is in their own hands.
Ie. Jesus warned Judas several times about what was ahead of him but yet he still chose his route to be the one that betrayed Jesus. The dynamic is expressed by Jesus in the words:
"The Son of Man is to be betrayed as it is written but Woe to the man though whom He is betrayed!"
"What" is determined "who" is not.
The Scripture tells us that in a house there are different vessels
some for noble uses (cup or bowl) some for ignoble uses (toilet)
and that we should turn away from being ignoble vessels (ie. repent, and then live pure) because we don’t want to be used by the householder for ignoble uses.
Ie. Judas was evil in betraying Jesus for money, God knowing he would do that, let him, but used that evil act to be the means of Jesus eventual Crucifixion. Which was the ultimate example of the evil of men being turned out for the Glory of God. Jesus (innocent) died for the sins of the very ones who were killing Him. The Scripture goes so far as to say that If the devil and those who inspired and encouraged the people to kill Jesus had known what the result would be (a way of reconciliation back to God for humanity) they WOULDNT have crucified the Lord of Glory.
They had a choice.
-Stephan
2007-03-07 06:52:29 · answer #4 · answered by Stephan J 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Partly, yes. But they also believe in free will because when you act, the act feels free. You don't feel like nature and nurture are pulling on you with puppet strings, you feel like you have decided to do something under no influence at all.
2007-03-07 06:23:11 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋