Now the people who don't have able enough minds will assume i am saying we are forced to do everything we do, like at gunpoint or something, No i'm not saying this. What I'm saying is, we make choices we are the ones who make them, BUT we are caused to make decisions. Whatever you do, you do with great reasoning in your mind. A dilema occurs when there is fairly equal reasoning to two opportunities, "Should i stay or go?". I could of chose cocacola with my lunch because the colour red was recent in my mind, and subconciously i associated it with cocacola... I have obviously chosen cocacola for a reason... right? You can argue whatever you like, i was caused to ask this and you were caused to read it or not read it, someone once said: Your brain is just a peice of goo with chemicals reacting with eachother, anything can affect those reactions and therefore your future.
2007-10-18 11:29:05 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Let's put it this way: If you have no free will - even if everything you think or do is forced on you by the environment or other things that happened in the past - then it doesn't matter whether you think it exists or not. You will, in fact, have no choice about whether you believe in free will or not, you will be forced to do whatever it is you do. If there is no free will, any thought about whether there is free will is a waste of time.
On the other hand, if there is free will, then those who refuse to admit its existance are at the very least wrong. And worse than just being wrong in some philosophical argument, they may very well live a substandard and less fulfilled life because they thought they had no choice but to do so. By abdicating responisibility for themselves, the essentially become the victim of the universe and everything in it.
So either way, the winning choice would seem to be to believe. IF you can make that choice, it is a good one.
On the other hand, if you want to talk more concretely about determination and will and metaphysics instead of game theory, you will have to do something that has so far been very elusive: define exactly what the heck you mean by 'free will' in a way that is observable, measurable, and otherwise useful. I cannot say that I have ever seen such a definition in any readings on the subject I have conducted up to this point.
So stick with game theory. You want to 'win', don't you?
2007-10-18 12:02:29 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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 this afternoon? 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.
2007-10-18 16:11:31 · answer #2 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Whether you consider humans to be creations of the natural forces of the universe or creations of god, the answer is: No, free will does not exist.
I we are just space dust in essence then we are controlled by the laws of physics and chemical reaction -- not free will.
If we are controlled by god, and that god knows everything, then we can't help but to do what he/she/it has preordained.
We can think about free will but that is only because we happen to be guided in that direction of thought by forces outside of our control. We can think we are free and want to do things of our own free will, but that is just the chemicals in our mind forcing us to believe such things. At best we can observe what we are doing and think that we control those things and believe that we are responsible for our actions. On the other hand... have you ever behaved in such a way that was inexplicable even to you? Why would anyone do that if that had free will. In any case, it doesn't matter because free will does not exist.
2007-10-18 13:17:13 · answer #3 · answered by Richie Paine 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
We hold the power to our own minds.. We all react different and have different actions or moods that trigger our reactions. Nothing is ever simple. The reason for all things including the socks you wear that day go back to something else. Such as what shoes you were wearing, which matched such and such. Everything always has a undefined beginning rather we realize it or not, we will never have total control over our own minds, thoughts or actions. It is all pre determined by something prior.
2007-10-18 16:36:25 · answer #4 · answered by @mber_925 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you -really- understand the modern interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (not the old 'Copenhagen' interpretation about the probability wave function 'collapsing' to one of it's possible eigenstates) then you'd understand that 'free will' and 'determinism' are -not- mutually exclusive and that Schroedingers Cat is both dead -and- alive, only just in parallel Universes.
Get a copy of Dave Deutsch's 'the Fabric of Reality' for a fairly good 'laymans' description of the whole concept.
Doug
2007-10-18 12:10:34 · answer #5 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i don't think in most situations it does exist. if it did then we could say and do what we all wanted and get away with it. Our government says we have freedom of speech , freedom of assembly and of course the freedom to bear arms, however many people have gotten sanctioned for doing such that in this day and age we claim to be the free est country in the world but if you look at it closely we have more rules and regulations then other countries do, free will hmm..... now if there was free will would I be hungry today???
2007-10-18 11:52:37 · answer #6 · answered by tammy s 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
just like they taught in school every thing has action and equal reaction. every choice you make affects your life small or large but yes free will does exist because you can change some of the events that happen to you but saying that we are predestined to be here and do this and that no
2007-10-18 11:45:24 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I agree with you in what you are saying, but I do not think this shows that we don't have free will. I think to a certain extent we all do have free will. Hobbe's said that we do not have any freedom/free will (social contract theory) due to democracy. however in the "state of nature" which he refers to, we do, but would say that this was a dangerous place to live because everybody had free will to do what they wanted. maybe we just have free will to a certain extent?
2007-10-18 11:40:09 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is only "The WILL." What we call free-will is merely the choice to know The Will or not!
2007-10-18 12:24:16 · answer #9 · answered by Premaholic 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe in G-D. Free Will exists. It is Him who has it,not us.
2007-10-18 16:43:38 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋