Poll: Does free-will exist?

[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.

free will is mind control. if asked to make a choice about anything (aside from favorite color and stuff like that) noone would be able to without having previously been influenced.
free will without being influenced would be random guessing. humans have only the opinions they have come in contact with.

Very well-put, though I've been thinking that for some time. The mind control thing was more of an Orwell-themed joke, but still.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I like to think "to each their own" So therefore saying free will does exist and we were free to do what we like, theoretically.

But a lot of things we do aren't a matter of choice. Look at reflex actions.

For the sake of argument, how is a reflex action different from a non reflex action? Because you 'do it without thinking'? What process is going on when we think? Is it not just the reaction of our brain to a stimulus?

 

[Xaio30]

Sometimes I feel like I'm doing things that suprise even myself, so yes, I think we all have free will.

 

[Tokzic]

Just like consciousness itself, free will is an illusion granted by high-level abstraction from low-level chemical processes. You simply cannot do something that you are not inclined to do. Every decision you make is the result of your current brain state following laws of energy and matter.

 

[malfernion]

Okay, this is me paraphrasing a lecturer from imperial college london in a colloquium at my university a couple of weeks back, talking about symmetry breaking in the early universe. The example is:

If theres a donkey stood on a perfectly symmetric hill and there are carrots placed at opposite sides at the bottom of the hill. If the universe is predetermined by prior events the donkey should starve, as there is no deterministic way to say which carrot to eat first. But ofcourse in real life the donkey won't starve as it chooses which to eat first.

 

[Kazaazz]

I like to think "to each their own" So therefore saying free will does exist and we were free to do what we like, theoretically.

But a lot of things we do aren't a matter of choice. Look at reflex actions.

For the sake of argument, how is a reflex action different from a non reflex action? Because you 'do it without thinking'? What process is going on when we think? Is it not just the reaction of our brain to a stimulus?

Well reflex actions bypass the brain in order to reach the Central Nervous System but anyway this is off-topic.

I honestly try not to think too deeply into things like free will, as thinking is a process I like to think I do, and no one else does. Non reflexive actions are like this, as we take a choice to do these things, however miniscule in time these choices take to be made.

As for the fundamentals of the process in which we think...who knows? Reaction of our brains to a stimuli is all very technical and rather superficial, but it's plausible.

 

[Hiikuro]

Taking probabilistic physics into account, I believe that the universe is inherently deterministic. In the same way our body is obeying gravity our brain obeys the laws of physics.

But that is not to say that we're not forming decisions of our own. Perhaps deterministic decisions, but it is still our own neural net that made the decision. If this neural net is me, then must it not also be that if this neural net makes a decision, that this decision is mine?

Ah, the concept of free-will easily ends up as a discussion trying to define words. If I had a solid definition of what free-will is, and all related concepts (such as, what is me/self), then perhaps it would be possible to find possible solutions based on these definitions.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

I think that there's free will. But I know a lot of people who don't, which baffles me.

 

[Harbinger_]

As an individual of society we do not.
In other ways yes we do its just not always as free as we would like.
Society is a large prison cell and no matter how large you make that cell people can still see the bars.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

i think that there is such free will, like i want to press post...

 

[trophykiller]

Obviously we have free will. Saying we don't would be an easy way to get out of any crime, but it's obviously a load of crap.

Also, if we don't have free will, why do some people like certain types of music whereas others hate it, even if they are closely related?

 

[Frotality]

we have free will in that our minds can make decisions on their own, albeit very influenced by external stimuli. freedom of choice however...as all the sciency-wiency stuff thats been posted has shown, actual free will is pretty much against the laws of physics (this is me qualifying myself by saying that im far from a scientific philosophy professor). our brains are simply a very complex from of central nervous system, it exists to guide us through life by interpreting the outside the world as best it can so we can use or avoid things to survive. instinct, emotion, and are just very complex forms of logical interpretation, 2 of many subconscious processes we are designed to follow, not understand. because we are consciously unawares of the deterministic nature of emotion, and because it influences every thought in some way, we naturally developed the illusion that we are choosing what to do with our lives, instead of just following a very very complex logical interpretation. 'choice' is merely the psychological lie we have invented for ourselves trying to consciously understand and accept these complex thoughts in action. 'deciding' is simply these thoughts running through the possible consequences before arriving at the action it deems most satisfactory.

its not that every single action anyone's ever done has been prophesied from the beginning of time, its just that whatever we do 'decide' to do is independent of any causality-breaking naked singularities in our brains. choice implies that we can do something entirely unpredictable, and scientifically im pretty sure predictability is like, the foundation of the entire universe. human psychology is just another from of autonomous reaction; a very complex one, but our minds dont somehow operate on different laws of nature; our choice is simply a relatively unique form of autonomous reaction.

 

[Ziggy]

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

heredity and environment
you thinke you have free will but all your actions are determined due to heredity and environment.
if somebody knew all about you, they would know what you would do in any situation, before you knew it. but the illusion of free will is a nice thing

Wrong. Close but wrong. The idea doesn't allow for change of personality or acting out of the personal norm. You can't account for all variables because you will never know them.

it does not say change of personality will never happen, it says that if it happens it was ment to happen. and you are right, we will never know all variables, all people we ever meet, the weather, culture and so on. but if a person know they could predict all events

 

[trophykiller]

Say, isn't the fact that we are asking this question prove free will exsists?

 

[Imp Poster]

I think we would like to have something like free will. But the why always bugs me. There always seems to be a why in what you chose.
A driving force to make that decision, an influence. So how free were you making that decision over the other?

 

[Andreas Egeland]

It comes down to your definition of free will. I would say that there are very, very, very, very, very many different factors which cause you to make a choice. However a choice is always caused by something either in the brain, or a collaberation of experience etc. Randomness is practically impossible to come by as humans. Therefore we don't have free will in the sense that, teoretically, all our actions could be predicted if we had perfect information of the brain and your experiences etc.
However I'd say that we don't, thereofre predictions are rather generalized, therefore you have free will in the sense of in the moment. Noone with only a knowledge of some choice you made will be able to predetermine EXACTLY what you will do, and you always have the potential to surprise. Therefor eI'd say we have some freedom in the sense that if it were viewed objectively and independently, it would be viewed as a free choice.

 

[Saxm13]

My brain hurts.

 

[Fiend13]

Let me think this through for you:

A being can be in exactly ONE of the two following states:
Either he/she/it is omniscient or not.

Assuming now we (or just me if you like that better) are [is] not omniscient, then a rational discussion about free will would have no merit since we could prove neither point of view.
If on the other hand we would be all - knowing we would know whether there is a free will or not.

So somebody please explain the merit of the discussion to me.

 

[Ziggy]

it does not say change of personality will never happen, it says that if it happens it was ment to happen. and you are right, we will never know all variables, all people we ever meet, the weather, culture and so on. but if a person know they could predict all events

The problem is that there are quite a lot of factors you can't measure without changing.

so the fight between free will and and not free will, is one where we will never know the outcome. and what does it matter. in the end, free will or an illusion of free will is most likely the same

 

[Ekonk]

You see, I don't see how determinism and free will exclude each other. Knowing EVERYTHING about a certain situation - the person, his memories, his beliefs, wether he had a good day, wether he has a hangover - could give you the ability to predict what he's gonna do, but that doesn't mean he isn't doing it out of free will.

In other words, I think free will exists.