February 5, 2010
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Free Will ?
Socrates_Cafe has asked this question - here's my take on this subject:
Yes we have Free Will - but that freedom is constrained by our fundimental biological nature. We can do what we choose but our choices must fall within our limitations as humans - we can't breathe under water or fly - or can we?
Actually there seems to be no limit to our ability to do what we wish, except that internal value system we receive from our parents and culture - and which we seem to be able to override at will.
Some would say our actions are "Predestined" by God, yet almost all religions have the concept of individual free choice to be good or bad and the free choice to overcome the evils of our nature and be redeemed.
The Existentialists say we have no choice but to have free will and freedom- that we cannot deny it, however uncomfortable that makes us - we do not have the choice to blame any one or any thing else for our decisions and actions.
They are probably right
Comments (3)
An interesting study! But I don't really see a definable conclusion on your part. Have you made one?
@nidan -
As Soc says, most philosophers consider the study of Freedom and Free Will to fall in four categories:
1. Freedom to make a significant choice among alternatives
2. Doing what you wish
3. Following an internal self-directed choice
4. Freedom to do what you OUGHT to do
All of these categories focus around the idea that given choices, we can/must freely select among the choices. Modern neurobiologists and sociobiologists question the "freedom" of our ability to choose, suggesting that we are either constrained by our biological nature and the wiring of our brain to favor certain choices above others. Sociobiologists go a step further, not only are we wired to make certain choices, but we are also conditioned to do so. My viewpoint is that these are non-sequiturs. Choice is choice - the question is not what choices we might consider, but our ability to choose among the choices available to us. I believe we have and must exercise that ability. We do not have the choice to abandon our free will. Even if we fully commit ourselves to another's will, we still made that choice - through our own free will.
Does a slave or a child have that ability? Epictitus said yes - we have absolute control over our attitude toward the choices we are able to make. We never have to accept domination of our innermost thoughts, for example.
If free will is the ability to decide the shape of the future with a choice of ours, i believe we don't have free will, being that everything is deterministic. Also our thoughts are deterministic because they are given by predictable electric shocks among our neurons. Any of our activity, thought included, are so theoretically predictable. And so they cannot be changed upon a free choice.
Our free will is so given as an illusion to decide predictable but unknown future.
We still have to (or can) decide what to do, but our decision is deterministically given. Also if future is destined, it's still unknown, and its destine depends upon our choice. Our choice is itself already predictable although not yet predicted.