Why do people think that acting randomly is tied to free will?

Question

I think it all comes down to a misconception of what free will is. I am a determinist and a compatibilist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

If the laws of the universe are truely based on randomness, do you think that people have control over the randomness, or that the randomness has control over people?

Just because I personally didn't know the outcome of the choice, doesn't mean that it had anything to do with randomness, nor does it mean that randomness is an essential part of making choices.

I won't give people points for trying to be funny (Jessica)

Answer 1

Under the doctrine of absolute pre-determination, society cannot hold us responsible if we decide to get drunk and our actions result in an automobile accident. Such incidents would have been part of a chain of causality that originated with the beginning of the universe. If we have no Free Will, there can be no responsibility and no punishments. Society could not exist.

The speculation that we have no free will defies common sense and our everyday experience of life. With the intervention of free will, our future, and thus the future of the universe, will follow a path different from the path it would have pursued without our intervention.

In addition to scientific considerations, common sense insists that Free Will exists. Who would deny that we have Free Will when we put one foot in front of the other and decide, of our own volition, of our own Free Will, to go for a walk or not go for a walk? It is clearly irrational to believe that a chain of causality (pre-determination) at the time of the Big Bang determines if we go for a walk this afternoon, or not.

Answer 2

There is definitely some determinism in human actions/decisions. For me, being able to go completely contrary from instinct shows that we have free will.
We can decide to kill ourselves, kill others for no reason related to physical survival or jealousy, etc...
We recognize our selfness as almost no other animal can (except other primates and see mammals). That is free will to me.

I'm always amazed at how some animals are so easily fooled. You see scientists in an animal suit getting near crocs, or lions, or whatever. We depend on ALL our senses (primarily sight of course) and would never be fooled by such simple disguises. They depend on smell, the scientists clearly don't smell like them, yet they are fooled. I think free will fits in there somehow as well, but I'm not exactly sure how.

We will prob never know if we would make a different decision if given the exact same choice multiple times b/c we will prob never be able to time travel, so we can only use thought experiments.

Answer 3

The word random brings to mind a hit & miss nondirected happenind. It is a sloppy word.

I don't believe the laws of the universe are based on randomness. There is no way the universe is some sort of accident.

The laws of science are pretty much exact. The more we know about the universe the more we know we don't know.

The balance of elements are just right to sustain the huge variety of life on earth. I just can't see that as random.
For instance if the carbon level in the atmospher around the earth changed by a very small percentage the earth would explode.

There is no randomness......there is law & order.

There is a higher power who is way beyond our understanding
I am a creationist/evolutionist

Answer 4

There are highly educated scientists who are this very minute trying to figure out how to protect the Earth from a collision with an asteroid or meteorite. If they figure it out before a big one comes, people have control over the randomness for a minute. If in 5 billion years from now people find a new planet with a similar environment to earth (before the Sun dies), we are in control again. Maybe we will have control but since we have to rely on good timing to survive the end of our species, maybe randomness would determine that as well.

Answer 5

the only way an act can be accomplished by free will is if there is NO outside influence to aid in the choice of the action. This means that the act will be by randomness. (This statement is the definition of free will)

It is also impossible to come up with a scenerio in real life action that is not influenced by either outside forces or those internal to us as an individual (whether by experience or ingrained beliefs)

Answer 6

Well, if decisions and choices are pre-determined by biological and environmental factors, their origin is too complex to be discovered, and thus creating the illusion of free will. However, since belief in free will is conducive to society, we must accept free will as a fact so that we will act accordingly and be productive. In Orson Scott Card's The Speaker for the Dead, this idea is briefly introduced and discussed by Valentine Wiggin.

Answer 7

"No thoughtful man can have any doubt...that such freedom is to be sought, not anywhere in nature, but outside of it. The only freedom that exists is of a metaphysical character. In the physical world freedom is an impossibility. Accordingly, while our several actions are in no wise free, every man’s individual character is to be regarded as a free act. He is such and such a man, because once for all it is his will to be that man. For the will itself, and in itself, and also in so far as it is manifest in an individual, and accordingly constitutes the original and fundamental desires of that individual, is independent of all knowledge, because it is antecedent to such knowledge."

Arthur Schopenhauer - Free Will and Fatalism

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/human/chapter3.html

Answer 8

I just checked your profile to possibly determine your philosophy of life and saw that you claim to be religious. If that means Christian I don't know. But my answer will reflect that possibility!

Below is an excerpt of an opinion of mine about this subject based on the scriptural testimony:

Summary:
1. We have the choice of heart.
2. God does the directing of our steps
3. The boundary between One and Two seem very gray occasionally.
4. We may chose to be righteous, decision of heart
5. We may chose to be wicked, a decision of heart.
6. God pays us back our deeds. If we chose 5 then we die.
7. Free will shows itself to be very limited.
8. Random events do happen, and some are not as random as they seem.

Ecclesiastes 9:11but time and chance happeneth to them all

Proverbs 16:1 To earthling man belong the arrangings of the heart, but from Jehovah is the answer of the tongue. 16:9 The heart of earthling man may think out his way, but Jehovah himself does the directing of his steps.

Jeremiah 10:23 I know, Jehovah, that the way of man is not his own; it is not in a man that walketh to direct his steps.

Proverbs 19:21 Many are the purposes in a man's heart, And the counsel of Jehovah it standeth. 20:18 By counsel plans themselves are firmly established, and by skillful direction carry on your war.

Proverbs 1:32-33 For the renegading of the inexperienced ones is what will kill them, and the easygoingness of the stupid is what will destroy them. 33 As for the one listening to me, he will reside in security and be undisturbed from dread of calamity.” 11:3 The integrity of the upright ones is what leads them, but distortion by those dealing treacherously will despoil them. 11:6 The righteousness of the upright ones is what will deliver them, but by their craving those dealing treacherously will themselves be caught.

Proverbs 11:31 Look! The righteous one—in the earth he will be rewarded. How much more should the wicked one and the sinner be! 20:18 By counsel plans themselves are firmly established, and by skillful direction carry on your war.

16:33 Into the lap, is cast the lot, but, from Yahweh, is its every decision.

Conclusion: random events may be big or small, negative as well as positive. We do not have control over random events! That is why they are called random.

But we may in some cases be able steer the outcome (cause / effect) of the random cause. Some random causes such as earthquakes may be beyond our ability to steer or control.
(1. we may be able to handle someone cutting in on us in traffic, 2. we may hit a spot of icy road and go out of control) Thus controlling the effect of random events is an iffy answer.

** For Christians a random problem resulting in death is looked at as a temporary situation since Christians believe in the resurrection occurring after Christ's second coming, after the Great tribulation, and after Armageddon when God's heavenly kingdom will be establishing a Paradise earth under Christ's rulership.

Answer 9

I believe that people have control over themselves, when acting randomly to their own free will and what they, themselves consider "free will." Whether or not we are influenced by others, we, as Individuals, still control our thoughts, mind, actions and words.

Answer 10

yes, because it's a choice, a person chooses to do something, or doesn't choose to do something, that choice is randomness, because you never know what the person is going choose to do.