Where does free will come from?

Question

If free will exists, where does it come from?

If you claim its an entirely physical by-product of this world, then you have to explain yourself because cause and effect rule this universe - there is no ambiguity.

If you want to argue that quantum mechanics presents randomness to the equation, then you have to explain yourself because it has not been proven that quantum mechanics is "random", furthermore that level of interaction is much "lower" than that of the neurons firing in your brain, and, just because randomness is injected, that doesn't mean free will results - it means your actions are random!

If you want to claim spirituality... then where exactly does it enter the "system". Every month we are coming to an increasingly better understanding of our brain and how it makes decisions etc... what room is left for spirituality? What happens when a computer connected wirelessly to your brain can make you feel anything, and think anything... your brain is causal

You say... There are the big questions of the meaning of life that don't fit into a scientific theory... I strongly disagree... science is the art of forming theories based on observations... I think all can and will be understood through scientific means (though certainly not in our century - or maybe even millenium)

Answer 1

we are only matter------->no free will because evolution is causal or deterministic
we are something else------->maybe free will or maybe not we can't tell

can the man discriminates between the two?I don't know.
the question itself has remained unchanged from Lucrezio . if after 2100 years we are on the same question with no progress I think we should conclude that it's not decidible.
But I've heard Zeilinger wants to do a diffraction experiments with viruses that could be related to this stuff in a complicated way
Ps
Quantum randomness is not in this topic:it appears in measuring (and I don't think something could measure the consciousness) and Qm assumes deterministic evolution for not measured systems (a little "contextual" but it works)

Answer 2

Why can't everyone interact with determinant free will?
Because everyone has a unique cognitive representation
of the true real world. This precludes the notion of choice
because choice to behave determinantly within the real
world would require an accurate representation of the
real world. In my opinion, it is highly probable that the real
world is absolutely causal. I base my opinion on the
premise of objects and procedures which appear to
be universal across all known subjective representations.
The existence of some universals must imply at the very
least that there are boundaries within the real world
which specifically define the confines of the universals.
Therefore, the real world must be well-defined at least
to that extent. Free will can be considered as the
uniqueness of representation(or if you choose, the
randomness of representation). In other words, I perceive
the world to be determinant within my representation of
it, and you might perceive the world to be determinant
within your representation of it. Considering that we
might disagree about the representation our well-intended
determinant behavior might be determinant only within
the confines of our representations.

Answer 3

First a little theoretical framework:

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

Stage Two Muscular-Anal: 1-3 years, autonomy vs. shame, toilet training;

The Erikson life-stage virtues, in the order of the stages in which they may be acquired, are:

Stage two: will

The idea is you must learn to decide when to go to the toilet for your self and there is no measure for precision, only feeling, and there of you must 'know' for your self the correct time for a choice for which there is no measure to use to be guided nor described precept or rule. From this is inferred an infinite freedom with incomplete knowledge, but it is not a norm that the concept for freewill comes into being at that stage in human development.

Answer 4

The purpose for spirituality and the reason it's not dead is simply because you can't answer that question through scientific, objective means. There are the big questions of the meaning of life that don't fit into a scientific theory. We're animals that say, "Why?"

Chicken or egg? Who designed them both? I don't know, but I wonder.

Answer 5

spirituality is the belief that something bigger exists than what we know so logically if you want to go that route. the bigger the univers and the more that is in it, therefore the more powerful is a god that created it

Answer 6

Free-will is a concept, thus it is fundamentally and principally coming from the mind/intellect.