So if you believe in determinism, you cant believe in free will?

Question

is that right
also where do you stand on this issue?

Answer 1

I don't agree with compatibilism, soft determinism etc...

This is because by definition we cannot both be determined by a causal chain and also have real free will. To have a free will means to be able to actually make a choice about what you do, even if it only a choice between certain available actions within your nature/nurture, rather than being pre-determined to make a certain choice by a causal chain (that stems from the start of the universe, or infinitely regresses) and only experiencing the illusion of choice.

For this very reason Kant reffered to soft determinism as "a miserable subterfuge", because soft determinism maintains that we have free will as well as being determined as long as we are free from coercion, even though we still have no actual control over our choices, they maintain that because it is OUR nature and nurture that they are therefore our choices. It's a different way of viewing it, a way which still leaves us without control but tries to make us feel better about it...

I personally maintain that we do have free will, although there is no real evidence, and only the subjective sense of choice that determinists would say is an illusion.

Since it can never really be falsified, people who believe in free will can qualify any evidence that points towards determinism, and determinists can do the same to evidence supporting free will. This is because it currently seems impossible to ascertain all of the causal factors that would go into a person's 'decision', and so if a child who was raised by psychologists in an environment that would cause murderous tendencies didn't turn out to be a murderer, they could qualify this by saying that there were other determining factors involved that caused the child to not murder.

Answer 2

This is a truism. If the world is run like a giant, intricate clock, then there can be no free will. If there was, how could the cereator ever tell the time?

Even more fun, no one can defeat a deterministic argument, because whatever your foe says, you can simply reply 'Ah, you were pre-determined to say that" or believe that, whatever,

That doesn't make it true or not, but it's fun, especially when picking on Christian who often cannot find their way out of the "if God knows everything you are going to do, before you do it, how can there be free will" argument.

Answer 3

I am a determinist and a compatiblist.

"Compatibilism is the belief that free will and determinism are in fact compatible and capable of co-existence" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilist)

I believe they can co-exist because I believe that free will means that I can make choices based on feelings, environment, background, memory and many other things. The choices I make determine the future. I am a Christian. I believe that if someone had enough knowledge, they could determine every free choice that I will ever make.

Answer 4

i cant see anyone believing in anything 100%. thats when problems arise. human minds are a little more complex than everyone thinks. you can believe in anything you want to, or part of some things, and part of others. if you will notice, nothing bad ever happens until people only believe in one thing, or idea. human evolution is still in the primitive stages, we are not anywhere as intelligent as we think we are. its only common sense to leave your mind open, the only one that knows it all is only fooling themselves, the unfortunate part is they fool others in the process.

Answer 5

How 'bout . . . the DETERMINATION to keep to the path of living your dream...your FREE WILL to strive towards your dream.

I very much believe that determination and free will go hand in hand.

I just read "camarco's " answer above me. I agree that labels are nonsense. Yet for humans to communicate, as we do now and on this Yahoo Answers site venue... we use ' labels ' to uniformly understand what message we are striving to convey.
.

Answer 6

labels labels labels maybe if everyone would stop labeling themselves they people would be less confused?

Answer 7

you should believe in GOD and YOURSELF instead of wasting anytime in terminology....good luck