Poll: Does free-will exist?

[Gaz6231]

Well that's just silly.

No need to be a rudey poo.

It's inherently free to decide not to pursue a course of action and you have no way to know whether it was a predictable course of action or not

Predictability has nothing to do with anything. It's simple logic; it happened, therefore it couldn't not have happened, therefore the alternative could not have happened. I can't see how that's difficult.

 

[7moreDead_v1legacy]

-|Note this my opinion...and I am very sleepy so it will maybe not make much sense|-

Free will exist until the restraints of 'life' are shackled around us *Read:- laws & common sense*. Which is like more or less straight away...

Take your average er...Squirrel, that will be all living life to the max as it hasn't got a set of rules with corresponding punishments for breaking them.

Example one. Squirrel "I don't like the look of that dormouse." Squirrel now rips dormouse apart
Example two. Squirrel "OOOOH ACRON!" Squirrel now runs for acorn ignoring large truck that is on a mission to make squirrel pancakes.

Now the squirrel was acting on free will doing what it wanted as it has no concept of any repercussion from its actions.

Now take your average law abiding citizen. We will be living our life with a somewhat possible assumption that we are free willed.

Example one. Squirrel Human "I don't like the look of that dormouse person."
Now say Human wanted to go all squirrel on the person free will would allow for such a thing but then human goes hang on doing such a thing is "bad-ong" ~Squirrel endorsed cookies if you get the reference~ and thus will cause me to get punished in some shape or form (depending on humans current place of occupancy).

Example two. Squirrel Human "OOOOH ACRON PANCAKE!" Squirrel Human would now realise that pancake is across a road with traffic upon it and would assess the situation, which is countering the free willed urge to run across the road, pick it up off the floor and stash it in their cheek pou...their stomach.

You could also include social ramification into this, but I would need a better example using something without a social structure per se...

TLR

Basically what I think I am getting at is free will is lost when a conscious aspect comes into play.

I am going to get more caffeine to keep me awake a bit longer now.

Feel free to discuss or ignore

 

[BioHazardMan]

Free will does not exist because every decision is influenced by something or another. The "free will" argument pisses me off because so many religions say "But you have free will!", actually no you don't. If you are threatened with eternal damnation, how is that free will?

 

[Gaz6231]

on a mission to make squirrel pancakes

I lol'd.

 

[minemin]

But let's think this out a bit:do we do anything out of free will?Take for example all the little things you do in your daily life like eating and sleeping and...going to the bathroom.Do we consider those to be out of free will?If free will does exist,then we should be able to have it in every moment of our life.

That is all.

 

[Souplex]

Does it matter? The illusion of free will is all we really need.

 

[CaptainKoala]

I chose to click on this link.

 

[Gwynnbleidd]

Well, we all have a predetermined mindset. Some kind of restriction that presents what we can do and what we simply can't. We can't change it so there IS some kind of free will, but it is not as free as we think. Can you change your sexuality just by wanting it or trying something new? Nope, you definitely can't. A lot of mad cultures tried it with no sucess.

You can learn from events what you do wrong and change it to a certain extend, but not as much as a purely free mind could do. Do we need to be free? I feel quite comfortable with saying "I can't achieve everything. Just those little things I am capable of." It's a better philosophy than keep saying: "It's all my fault because I didn't try hard enough."

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Free will is a sort of fanciful concept like the Easter bunny or alternative music. Believe in it if you want to and think that it helps but it doesn't really do anything.

 

[nunqual]

Yes, it does, because I just decided that that theory is bullshit and I don't believe it.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

/threadz, methinks

 

[Lazy Kitty]

No, it doesn't (for you).
Actually, I control your will.
No, there's nothing you can do about it.
There's nothing you want to do about it.
Why?
Because I said so!

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well first let's get one thing straight, we are machines or systems, not some fairy dust cotton candy magic benevolent unicorn riding beings, and as machines we operate under a certain set of rules (all those rules all still beyond our own grasp so they may seem to not exist at all, but they are there).

So the only question that remains is, are systems pre-determined?
Let's say you have 100 marbles, and you throw 1 marble at them, can you predict with absolute certainty how they will move?
Newtons laws of physics say yes, if you know the exact input it will translate to an exact output, hence every action is defining a reaction from the start of the universe till the very end.
However we already know Newtons laws barely cover the tip of an iceberg, that is now being unveiled through Quantum physics, and there you find that the exact state of anything is impossible to define therefor the next state is not and can not be pre-determined (I wont go into details because I hardly understand it myself).

Bottom line is the actual physics of the universe around us are not a stable system, and it has no pre-determined path, you can only predict something with a number of certainty, so while a system can be fairly predictable it is not set in stone, and nor are we.

 

[Ancientgamer]

Compatibalism attempts to redefine either "determinism" "causality" "free-will" or some combination of these terms to reconcile determinism with free-will. The only form of this that I am that familiar with is Many-worlds Compatibalism, which says that every time you make a choice you create two alternate time-lines, one where you made the choice and another where you didn't make the choice. So you can choose which time-line to inhabit but you can't actually change any particular timeline. Sorry about the lack of poll, my computer has been having a hard time interacting with The Escapist lately.

That's a very odd way a defining Compatibalism. I think Schopenhauer's thoughts on it were the best. Free will means we are free to follow our will how we see fit, but we are not free to choose our will in the first place.

For instance, my will (living in america) might be to be successful in industries X,Y or Z, and I would be able to freely pursue that. However I never chose to want that, it happened organically and deterministically. You cannot choose what you want to do, because it is by definition innate, I can just choose how to do it.

 

[BlastedTheWorm]

Yes, it does.

It's just depressing to think otherwise.

 

[burn e]

I'd like to think that everything is written.
so no, free will is a lie (and the cake is also a lie)

 

[llew]

nothing is pre-determined... unless you can read 6.5 billion minds at the same time and can control each of them you could never tell what will or wont happen, we all have our own free will because thats what makes us who we are, lets say someone told you to punch someone your free will would be what makes you either do it or not do it

 

[GodofCider]

Think of it like this:

Choose which you like better- cheese, or peanut butter.

Now, think back upon your choice, and ask yourself if, given the present, whether or not you could have chosen differently.

No, of course not. You chose what you chose, and you're not about to modify said choice made moments ago.

Of course, that doesn't mean you didn't make a decision between the two, only that you could not have made a different decision than the one you did. Note the distinction between the two.

So, to answer the question. No?

 

[DarkRyter]

I hope it does.