Is Free Will an illusion?

Oenomaus

Oenomaus

Green Belt
@Green
Joined
Feb 8, 2012
Messages
1,094
Reaction score
108
Reignited a debate between a friend and I tonight on the topic of free will so I pose the following question. - Are our decisions determined by a casual chain of preceeding events or are our decisions controlled by ourselves? - My opinion, we have free will. Why else would we have a conscious if every decision we make is predetermined?
 
I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze. But I think maybe it's both. Maybe both are happening at the same time.
 
I don't believe our universe is deterministic in any sense, so I don't believe our actions can be predetermined.
 
More of a philosophy question than anything.
 
I believe in free will but it's hard to practice with all the legal reprocussions.
it's something that is had but easily taken away..
 
BUTTCHEDDAR said:
I believe in free will but it's hard to practice with all the legal reprocussions.
it's something that is had but easily taken away..
Click to expand...

You simply need a plan.

MyCard_The_Joker.jpg
 
I don't know enough about philosophy terminology to really argue the point, but I think I agree with your friend. I sort of see it as a matter of perspective. We make choices, but what choice we make is a product of who we are, and who we are is a product of the relationship between our genetics and our experiences. So, to me it would really depend on how you define free will, and a quick glace at wikipedia makes it look like that would take a lot of reading, and not everyone agrees anyway.
 
HillRaiser said:
In any sense?
Click to expand...

That may be a little too harsh. However, the determinism of our universe is severely limited. As we deduce cause from effect, the chain is pretty quickly either broken, or simply untenable. I think most occurrences in our daily life are stochastic, at least at their very root.
 
I agree with Ah Man on the points that the term free will is quite subjective and that our decision making process is determined by past encounters/experiences, but it leads me to ask, if we were given an identical scenario ten times, would we approach the scenario the same all ten times?
 
Oenomaus said:
Reignited a debate between a friend and I tonight on the topic of free will so I pose the following question. - Are our decisions determined by a casual chain of preceeding events or are our decisions controlled by ourselves? - My opinion, we have free will. Why else would we have a conscious if every decision we make is predetermined?
Click to expand...

Your question is severely simplistic and fails to really divide the question of free will being the actual ability or not. Evidently, you do not know predeterminism from determinism. Additionally, it seems as if you don't really know what free will is.
 
AncientEnemy said:
I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze. But I think maybe it's both. Maybe both are happening at the same time.
Click to expand...

Paradoxes seem to be the foundation for life and how it is functions.
 
Oenomaus said:
I agree with Ah Man on the points that the term free will is quite subjective and that our decision making process is determined by past encounters/experiences, but it leads me to ask, if we were given an identical scenario ten times, would we approach the scenario the same all ten times?
Click to expand...

If things played out satisfactory then probably yeah, for the first couple of times at least... Hard to divert from what's known and comfortable, but you'll never know if there's anything good or better by make a lousy choice.. Like wanting to have a kid but end up having one with the worst possible person ever..
 
TheQu said:
That this world is governed by basic physical laws and that we are just a collection of atoms that follow these laws.
Click to expand...

I thought so. I don't believe that's entirely consistent with what we've learned from the way atoms actually behave. I don't think that for every thing that happens, that there are a certain set of conditions such that only that thing could happen.
 
I'm a Christian, and do not believe in free will. It is an idea that is incompatible with our concept of God.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,613
Messages
55,504,843
Members
174,800
Latest member
kechan123

Share this page

Back
Top