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dart board;; science bs
rule #1: be kind
Yeah I was taught about "free will" as part of my religious upbringing. It's essential to the ideology of blame, guilt, etc. It's absolutely amazing how many people accept this pseudo-science without question. It's very very clear why hegemony wants to instill this ideology. It's fundamental to violent control. People deserve to be controlled because they abuse their "free will".
Let's see how many downvotes this post gets without any response. That's the power of mythology. lol.
I believe the whole free-will vs. no free-will argument has to be more subtle, more nuanced, more complicated and less obvious than the debates I've seen on internet message boards make it out to be, but I'm not familiar with any background material or explainers that would deepen my understanding.
Because, you know, the facile response to the entire question is something like "If there is no free will, then I have no choice about whether or not I believe in free will," which would seem to short-circuit any possible change in our behaviors and attitudes. Probably the serious thinkers on this question have something less self-defeating in mind.
So, can anyone recommend some specific resources?
Free will does exist.
The illusion of free will exists. Take the next thought that pops into your head - what was it? something random? Did you will the thought into existence? or did it merely appear? seemingly from nowhere? If we can't freely control which thoughts pop into our heads it goes to show that there is at least a degree of randomness and a case for the illusion of free will. Read some neurology books and not the bible....it might blow your mind.
You can control what you do and what you act on.
Dwell on Philosophy.
The randomness of certain thoughts, that are influenced mostly by the things we experience, is not contradictory to free will. For example, thoughts can be externally inspired but the choice to act on it is yours. External factors can change the stakes of your choices, but it is still your choice.
"By contrast, forgiveness of self and of others are highly robust predictors of psychological wellbeing and healthier relationships."
Luke 6:37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
One does not need to deny free will to forgive.
I have heard the argument that since all particles originate at the big bang, their path and interactions with each other are predetermined throughout all time. I.e. because they all started out in a specific path they will interact with other particles at a set time and place, causing the particles they interact with to change their path, and so on. But since it’s all predetermined free will does not exist, the particles in our brain also originate from the big bang in one way or another.
You used the term predetermined there so I just want to note to others that no-free-will doesn't imply fatalism. It's not that whatever was going to happen is going to happen anyway whether you do anything about it or not. That would imply cause without an action and it's the exact opposite of what the idea of no-free-will in a deterministic universe means.
Determinism is about everything following from past events and the state of the universe at that specific moment and that the ability to have done otherwise is an illusion. So you didn't grab a chocolate bar at the checkout because it was predetermined at your time of birth that this would happen but you also didn't grab it because that's what you chose to do there and then and you could've also chosen not to grab it. No - you couldn't have. You didn't choose to be hungry, you didn't choose to notice the chocolate bar there, you didn't choose to like Snickers more than Twix and so on. Everything that ultimately led to you grabbing that specific chocolate bar was outside of your control and the fact that you did grab it means that if we rewind the universe back to that same moment, everything else being equal, you'll just grab it again, and again, and again. How could you not grab it? That's like saying 4 + 4 is 8 but it could also be 6. No it can't. It's always going to produce the same result no matter how many times you run the calculation.
We do things for two reasons: either you want to or you have to. There's obviously no freedom in having to do something but you're not free to choose your wants either.
Free will conditions for a person:
I can understand the system, predict how it shapes me, regulate my response, and sometimes alter its constraints
"abolishing all responsibility for our actions and will could make is less hateful and ashamed of our actions"