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nixsensei t1_j4losre wrote

On free will
The more I think about free will the less it seems reasonably possible.
First, lets define Free will.
I had a pretty clear Idea but I look it up on Wikipedia to find an already wide consensus on its definition: Free will is the capacity of the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Being able to choose means there are real possibilities to choose from.
Unimpeded means not being force, push or nudge.
Second, what are the necessary requirement for free will to exist.
If we can show that those requirements exist we can, then, reasonably think that free will is possible.
Not yet proving it exist but might exist.
Can a 6 sided die can fall on its 8th faces?
Of course not. Being a cube exclude having more than 6 faces. So it’s “choice” is confined. It cannot “choose” to fall in any other ways.
It structurally impossible.
I guess we are all humans here, reading this. Or maybe ChatGPT is.
Anyway for the sake of argument it is not important.
Being humans implies a lot of limitations and reduces the choices we can make.
You did not choose to be human. You did not choose where and when you are born.
You did not choose you parents, culture, language… any social-economics conditions.
Your gender, your genes, your environment.
And not remembering you have chosen is not an argument, it is not an explanation. And in fact limits you more add constrain and tend to push toward no free will.
OK lets suppose you are on a road and there is an intersection. You may choose to go right or left.
Both choices lead to the same road. So you can freely chose to go left or right.
Witch way do you choose?
Can I choose to go both ways? Why left or right? Why not up or down or back? Why?
Why am I on a road? Did I choose a road with no other choices than left or right? Why am I on this road?
Why am I speaking the language I speak? I am sure nobody is born being able to speak Polish and Japanese… Why? We don’t have to choose because this is not REAL possibilities.
We are like a 6 sided die. We can’t choose what we cannot choose.
Can I choose to live forever? Not just saying so, or believing so until I die. I mean really live because I choose too.
Can we be smarter than we are by sheer will? It will be thinking that we can be taller by sheer will.
I think we cannot.
To resumed: Where there is no real choices there is no way we can show there is free will.
What can we choose by our self that is not implicit or force on us?

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AnAnonAnaconda t1_j4lxbbw wrote

Our thoughts and actions are either causally determined or the subjects of randomness (or a combination).

If our thoughts and behaviours are entirely causally determined, then calling our will(s) "free" is misleading. We wouldn't be free to deviate from what we were always absolutely bound to do, maybe unbeknownst to us since we're unaware of all the causes involved.

On the other hand, if our thoughts and behaviours are subject to some randomness, well, to that extent they're outside of our control, since randomness is beyond our control by definition. If our thoughts and actions are "free" from the causal chain (since they're simply random) they're outside the influence of a will.

And to the extent that they are within the influence of a will, they're part of the chain of cause and effect, stretching back before any of us were born. Very much not "free" of this long chain.

TL;DR : If it is a will, it isn't "free". And to the extent that it's "free", it's nothing to do with a will.

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Perrr333 t1_j4sgsvr wrote

I take the view that "free will" is poorly defined, roughly echoing Strawson's compatibilist view (if you are interested in this you MUST read Strawson's 'Freedom and Resentment' [1962], one of the greatest philosophy lectures ever which changed the minds of many in the field; it's only 15 pages!). What matters to me is 'choice'. Now, seeing as I also hold a materialist view of the brain-mind issue, and a materialist view of metaphysics, I fully accept that all things we typically call 'choices' are causally (fully deterministically or partially randomly) determined by the material world, included both brain activity and everything else. We slide between different definitions of choice in everyday language, considering choices free-er when for example not taken under duress. But these definitions of choice are slid between precisely because we wish them to align with our understanding of ethics; specifically, what a moral choice is and when a choice should or shouldn't be punished. And this is all above board because even though there isn't some external presence disconnected from the material controlling the mind, nevertheless choices are being made within brains. Choices you make are yours because they stem from your brain's activity, and this activity IS you. Note that if you read Strawson's paper, he makes his arguments without appealing to materialism; it's just easier and quicker for me to use it because I believe it.

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nixsensei t1_j4v05j9 wrote

Thank you for the reference.

I will have look.

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