Freewill? Any philosophy majors?

Question

There is so much to this.
Every time we learn something from our environment, our brain rewires according to it, thus affecting any decision we make afterward.
(So there's no freewill?)
But we don't rely solely on what the environment allows us to learn, then evolve on - we also have a desire for novel stimulation, like curiousity, or creativity, which CANNOT be taught with classical conditioning.
(So there is freewill?)
I believe I have freewill, and so I do?? Is that it?

(Anyone else read Opening Skinner's Box, or Voltaire?)

when we had a socratic seminar in psych, the class was UNANIMOUS that there was no such thing, everything was learned...i was crushed since it didn't explain creativity... i appreciate how open minded you all are...so this deterministic thing, does it have to apply to eVERYTHING or just some things (like neural connections) like I think?

Answer 1

The basis of the free will debate hinges upon two questions.

1. Is the world we live in deterministic or indeterministic?
2. Is free will possible in such a world?

A deterministic world is one in which ALL phenomena are the result of previous causes, and if not all phenomena are NECESSARILY caused by previous events, then the world is indeterministic.

While theories abound saying that you can have free will in a deterministic world (compatiblist arguments), I don't buy it. Free will requires that you actions need to at least at some times be indeterminate.

But an indeterminist world does not mean detachment from causality. In fact, it can be argued that a great many things we do are a result of how we were raised, our genetic lottery, and our circumstances.

However, from time to time, even though it doesn't seem different any other time in our lives, our upbringing, psychology, and context do not add up to NECESSARY cause us to make one decision or another.

Robert Kane says that these moments are character forming moments. Each of these decisions forges our character, and that character contributes to future decisions that are made deterministically.

Answer 2

You are correct that the brain rewires itself based on new experiences in the environment, but the rewiring doesn't necessarily affect our decisions afterward.

Let's say I'm in love and I get dumped and I feel heart-broken. My brain has its idea of love from my collection of past experiences, but now post-breakup when I think about love I also associate pain from that thought because it links me to the experience of a girlfriend that dumped me.

At this point your brain has rewired in this new information connected to love, but you still have choices when you see a new possible girlfriend. You can say:

1."I don't want another relationship I'm heart-broken."

2."I don't want another relationship, but maybe friends with benefits."

3."I don't want a relationship, but maybe we can be friends."

4."I would like to get over this feeling and try another relationship."

But you also have to factor in probabilities that can modify your choice like:
*how long since you broke up
*are you a needy individual
*are you focused on a career at the moment
*do you have children with your ex
*etc.

Ultimately the choice is yours, your brain rewires itself in order to organize all the information you recieve constantly. The brain is trying to be helpful, but if you are not aware that you are in control then it is easy to live on auto-pilot albeit usually disastrous.

It is not just believing that you have freewill. It is recognizing what freewill is, experiencing that you have that power, and then optimizing your ability to use it so that you can see what the probable outcomes of your choices will create, and then choosing the best one.

Answer 3

You're a part of a bigggg family - you inherited all sorts of genes and propensities. Your free willl started with your grandpa's grandpa's grandpa's you get the picture. When you are born, you get your own chances - within what you've been given. What will you do, what will you choose? The moment you make a choice, you've made a choice - you can't unchoice it. You gave up your freewill to change that choice because TIME keeps rolling on. You get one shot. Then, another shot. You can't change the shot you made before...because you can't go back in time. SO, every choice you make from infancy to the grave matters - at least to you. You will learn from it, change your views, maybe give up, whatever. You build on the choice you made before, then you build on that one...you learn, you fall, you whatever. Don't think of it like square 1, square 1, square 1 - all free choices. Think of it like, square 1,2,3,4...all building on the last choice...till your in the grave. The moral? In the words of Indiana Jones....choose wisely.

Answer 4

We still have free will, but the experiences that we have already encountered will affect the choices that we make. You can still choose, but typically we draw on our past experiences to help us decide what to do or how to react.

Our curiosity may drive us to do things that even goes against what we already know. For example, if I know that smoking is bad for me and I've seen the bad effects on it, but yet I'm curious about it, I might still make the decision to smoke. (Just an example here.)

Answer 5

yes, i think we have free will, but it takes some effort to truly exercise it. It is possible to go through life just reacting, or feeling trapped in compounded emotions from the past, but we do have the capacity to move beyond this, some more easily than others.

Answer 6

I like this question-but you might not like my answer.
Yes i believe in free will-but at the time-we are not free-trapped in a machine unable to fly.