Poll: Does free-will exist?

[Sewblon]

Indeterministic philosophy usually admits that much of what happens in the universe is due to either the laws of nature or chance, but supposes that human beings still have free will.

Predeterminism says that the future was set in stone by causality at the beginning of the universe. Some other forms of determinism deny Predeterminism because of quantum indeterminacy but still argue that free-will doesn't exist because everything we do is determined by random collisions of particles and chemical reactions in our brains.

Compatibalism attempts to redefine either "determinism" "causality" "free-will" or some combination of these terms to reconcile determinism with free-will. The only form of this that I am that familiar with is Many-worlds Compatibalism, which says that every time you make a choice you create two alternate time-lines, one where you made the choice and another where you didn't make the choice. So you can choose which time-line to inhabit but you can't actually change any particular timeline. Sorry about the lack of poll, my computer has been having a hard time interacting with The Escapist lately.

 

[Gaz6231]

This video goes some way to answering the conundrum I think. Free will should in theory be a conscious thing, this proves it's otherwise.

 

[Sewblon]

This video goes some way to answering the conundrum I think. Free will should in theory be a conscious thing, this proves it's otherwise.

Thats interesting and I appreciate that you posted it. But it doesn't really present and air-tight argument against free-will. If my mind really is nothing but my brain activity, doesn't that just mean that I make decisions before I know that I made them?

 

[Gaz6231]

Of course we have free will, we can choose to counteract almost everythign we do if we want.

Counteracting something means you never did what you were going to do, therefore you were never going to do it.

Pre-determinism - 1.

 

[Bakuryukun]

This video goes some way to answering the conundrum I think. Free will should in theory be a conscious thing, this proves it's otherwise.

um...no it pretty clearly states in the video that it is essentially equal part conscious and unconscious or at least that both aspects have to be involved. It's not really as shocking as the guy is making it out to be.

 

[Gaz6231]

No one has successfully travelled into the future and recorded our future to cross check this.

It's a theory and not even a particularly good theory, it's deliberately unprovable.

I think you're missing the point. The fact that you 'decided' not to do something means that you took a single course of action. It is impossible to take both courses of action, therefore only one will actually happen, therefore there was no other choice. Time travel has nothing to do with it because time travel is impossible.

um...no it pretty clearly states in the video that it is essentially equal part conscious and unconscious or at least that both aspects have to be involved.

Um...Hence the qualifier 'goes halfway to answering'.

 

[Cogwheel]

I want to believe in free will because anything else is simply too depressing. No, I don't really have a clever answer. That said, I give myself little choice in what I do, what with my brain being 95% guilt.

Also: There is no mind control, citizen. Or something to that effect.

 

[Gaz6231]

So basically if you decide to do something but change your mind, that's not free will?

Basically, yes.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Hmmmmmm....nope don't think it does anymore.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Of course I do. For the simple fact I don't believe in any supernatural forces that might act on the universe or control our actions. The whole idea of no free will is actually rather ridiculous to me.

 

[Yosato]

I believe in free will, mainly because I think I've achieved quite a bit in life and I'd rather believe that was down to my own personal choice and perseverance than through some chemical reaction determined long ago.

 

[GeorgW]

I believe in a combo of destiny and free will. But I like the idea of a deterministic universe.

 

[Silk_Sk]

The secrets of the universe lie in irony. Do we have free will or are our actions predetermined? My answer is...yes. And that's not supposed to be a "but yes to which one?" joke. The answer to both of those options is yes. Although they may seem contradictory, both of them are true. Instead of resolving what appears to be the conflict, first accept both options as truth and their true nature will become apparent. And that nature is that both free will and fate are one and the same to the full extent of their implications.

 

[[.redacted]]

Depends how you define free will.

If you define it as "My...

Scratch that.

No, we do not have free will, all our emotions and actions are caused by chemical and electrical changes within our nervous system. The fact that we cannot monitor these things to the extent of being able to fully predict the outcomes means that it can be interpreted as free will for now, but ultimately we do not have free will.