The Problem with free will?

Question

Everything follows strict rules. Gravity, Light, Sound. How a train moves along tracks, how a bird flies.

How our bodies react is goverened by all manor of scientific laws and definates.

But if everything is ruled, do we have free will? If our bodies follow guidlines what makes our choices free to make? If everything follows laws then do we have any say in how things run their course?

Answer 1

my sentiment is the same, there's no such thing as free will.



when we choose not to respect bad parents (worst than you can imagine), we're deem to be unsuccessful in everything we do.

when we choose not to believe in God, we're going to hell.

Answer 2

Nature is governed by rules, but one of those rules is that nature is undetermined, as proven by David Bell's work exploring the uncertainty principle. Specifically, Bell proved the "strong uncertainty principle", which says that there is no fact of the matter about certain properties of particles at once. The most famous uncertainty relationship is position/momentum.



This combines with chaos thoery, which says that in certain circumstances even a small difference in initial conditions leads to an enormous difference in the eventual evolution of a system. This shows that chaotic systems are undetermined because the initial conditions are uncertain. Chaos magnefies the quantum indeterminism. Weather is a good example. Even given the best possible knowledge and the best possible models, we still could not predict the weather beyond a certain period of time except to give very general trends. The summers will be warm, the winters cool, for example.



The human brain is an example of this type of chaotic system. The evolution of the brain over time is undetermined. There are certain trends. Some brain states are more likely to occur than others, but one cannot predict exactly what we will think in the future.



So now within this framework, let us ask the question: What is free will. The will is the decision making process. It is an emergent phenomenon what is irreducible to the processes in the brain alone, but which is fundementally dependent on them. Now the question is whether the will is free. Yes, it is free, as in undetermined. In particular, it is a self determining system. The way it evolves is open, but dependent on both outside influences and more fundementally on its own structure and it's own past states. In other words, our decisions are free, but shaped by our environment and the choices we have made in the past.



If you're looking for a humunculous, some little man inside your head that's responsible for your decisions independent of nature, you won't find it. This framework provides a satisefying definition of free will that actually exists. I argue that the fact that free will exists on this definition is a great argument that it should be accepted.

Answer 3

Do you really believe that everything follows strict rules or laws?

Who created/invented those rules/laws?

Subjectively limited, finite, fallible humans.

We love to assert rules/laws. They are so reassuring. They build up a cosy barrier between us and the reality of our tiny pool of knowledge; knowledge that in itself is relative and subjective.



We gather observations, but the questions informing that process are based upon subjective/relative knowledge. We build our theories of probable explanations for what we have repeatedly observed; using the best controls we can devise. BUT, at each stage we are still only proposing LIKELY explanations for the observations. Likewise the conclusions. are likelihoods based upon our best thinking, so far. And like the proverbial house of cards; if a single card is removed having been found to be inaccurate; down comes those that depended upon it.



Newtonian science is a best fit system. It may be the best fit we have for practical everyday usage. to-date. However, applied to sub-atomic principles its fabric unravels and new ideas were developed to patch the holes i.e. Quantum mechanics. Where matter itself is seen to blink in and out of existence. Uncertainty is a 'law/principle' and the poetry of metaphysics/mystical traditions exchanges best fit descriptions with the 'scientific' community.



If you believe in the principle of 'Karma', or 'cause and effect' free will is debatable as every choice can be seen as the likely outcome of preceding events. We used to call this 'fate'; the weaving of the threads of our lives by the 'Norns' or 'weird sisters' before we built the bastion of 'scientific knowledge' and the 'age of enlightenment' to protect us from such superstitious nonsense.



However, what we do have and have always had is choice. The choice to stop, or to go on. Science and fate will argue around us till humans have stopped demanding to be right; so, probably forever.



I choose to go on. The process is so much more interesting than the outcome.

Answer 4

The problem with trying to analyse choices into a series of prior causes is that you quickly end up with an infinite regression i.e. what caused the cause of your choice, what caused the cause of the cause of your choice and so on. In other words, you're never able to give a full account of a choice in terms of its prior causes.



What you're left with is that you can only describe why you made a particular choice by saying that you just chose it i.e. as an act of freewill.



Decisions and choices are just different kinds of things from physical events. That's not to commit oneself to believing in the existence of some ghostly spirit (a la Descartes); it's just to say that they're a different kind of thing and can't be talked about in the same kind of terms.

Answer 5

No, free will in a religious sense has been proven impossible by the research of Benjamin Libet, leading specialist of consciousness of the 20th century. Our decisions are made on our subconsious level, before we are even aware of them. Free will is simply an idea most need (they don't have free will to believe in the idea of free will hehe) to stay alive, to live their lives, most do not have the intelligence/genetic makeup to be able to live if they knew they were not in control.



As Albert Einstein said when explaining free will



"A man can very well do what he wants, but he can not will what he wants."



or the much publicized quote



"God doesn't play dice with the universe."

Answer 6

The kind of choices you are talking about are not made by our bodies and therefore are not subject to the same laws. Thoughts are not made of atoms or molecules, feelings are not subject to scientific laws and definates so therefore your question actually doesn't make sense. You cannot make a logical argument against an illogical question.

Answer 7

What is life if any than other than the dictates of our nature or jumbled mess of moments, places, people and events in the flux of time? Life for animals and plants is whatever is within the permissions of their rigid nature, or the nature of the physical universe, and life for human beings is in the questioning, in thinking critically, and in the subsequent pain or joy that the mind induces. The question of free will is as old as the mankind itself, as long as our consciousness can peer into things, into itself reflecting.



What is the proof that we are not being driven along the preset paths towards preordained destinations beyond life and death?



There is none, apart from the fact that whatever happens to us, we can observe, and thereupon think, and wonder, and then feel about our destiny, or about the absence of it. Now, the absence of destiny is the matter of the presence of an absolute Will, but whose will?

If life is not our will, but the Will of God, then do we not sin against Him?

And if life is our will then do we not feel pain, hurt, sorrow, dejection and failure?



In either case there is possibility of more than one being in existence: Either one is the super-projection of general nature of things, a you mentioned, or human life is the emanation from the Will of God itself, this is to be known certainly that we have free will, and that to match our human capacities, if not the absolute capacities of God Almighty, or those of the nature of the universe.

Answer 8

If you understand quantum mechanics it is easy to answer your question. In quantum mechanics Schroedinger equation is a strict rule, but the solutions are probabilistic.

So, the Natural Law is deterministic, but the solutions are probabilistic, the result will depend on observers' free will.

Free will exists.

Answer 9

To me free will and freedom is about making choices. You ALWAYS have a choice. Even when the two choices are ones you don't desire or want, you do still have a choice. That is free will and freedom. Freedom to choose, to make mistakes, learn and find things out.

Answer 10

Good question. I think because we have a mind that gives us individuality to make choices good or bad that we have free will. The extent of our free will is matter of perception of reality. And your reality is also what you chose to make it based on your free will. We have the limits that your question brings forward that casts doubt of how much we actually are acting of our own accord. It comes down to perception. If you believe you act of free will then others won't easily convince you differently.

Answer 11

Free will is an illusion that only operates withing the limitations imposed on us by the constraints of the time space mass universe that we seem to be living in.



Love and blessings Don

Answer 12

I know what you mean. When we were granted freewill, with it we had transferred to

us the responsibility to suffer for the consequences of the ill-use of our freedom.

We are indeed related to Nature by way of certain laws, but we still enjoy the freedom to do as we please. For example, we are free to imitate the birds but without wings we

know that the consequences will be drastic.

Answer 13

There is NO such thing as free will.



let me elaborate more on that, Your friend decided to call you, and you received the call, was it YOUR choice that your friend called you? did you want that? what if you don't want the person to call you? is that free will? No. It's not.



so there is no such thing as free will. maybe sometimes we are, but not entirely.

Answer 14

Nothing follows strict rules.

Its only our imagination.

Everything is out of order, we all included

jihn

Answer 15

free will is defined by 'choice', science mainly has rules that govern actions

Answer 16

some say we allow/restrict ourselves using the forces around us to that we can move. think about it. if you are naked and in space in a shuttle somewhere, you aren't moving and you are out of reach of anything. do you think you will be able to get out of this situation? no u need forces to allow to move you, you cant move by yourself.

Answer 17

true freedom and independent thought exists in your head



if free will exists we would be immortal, If I kill myself, I could just come back to life( well, technically I wouldn't be dead at all)

Answer 18

there is no such thing as true freedom

actually there might be...

if you can detach yourself from EVERYTHING love life happiness sadness hate death

EVERYTHING and just not care

then you can have freedom

Answer 19

Too much choice.

Answer 20

If one's will is strong enough, it is able to overcome anything. The problem is, most people accept things as they are and don't have enough mental will to overcome it.

Answer 21

yes, free will is the freedom to choose... the choices create reactions, we reap the benefit or suffering of it... but it is what it is....

Answer 22

We have willpower.

Answer 23

Do we really exist or are we an experiment....................