RE: Is free will real?
December 22, 2014 at 9:38 pm
(This post was last modified: December 22, 2014 at 10:37 pm by Dystopia.)
I have mixed views on free will... Honestly, it's not a subject I think about and I don't give a damn if it exists or not, however from what I can remember that I studied in highschool (better than nothing I guess) I could sum up 4 possible orientations:
Indeterminism - Everything is random and happens out of randomness, all events are non linear and have no explanation, they happen because they do, motivated by a caused that happened to be there, but if it wasn't that wouldn't have happened, or would have happened differently
Determinism - All of you are familiar with this, everything has a cause, is pre-determined, and we have little to no control over all naturalistic events that occur
Moderate determinism - Everything has a cause, but we get to make a choice - We are conditioned by biological, social, legal and ethical factors as complex beings, there are many things we don't control, that happen and can't be prevented, but we do get a margin of choice from time to time, sometimes more often. I pick this orientation
Complete freedom - We are free to do what we want and we can choose freely all the events that take part. For obvious reasons I don't think free will would be infinite (if it happens to exist) so I dismiss this orientation.
As a law student with preference for criminal law, I must assume some free will exists otherwise the whole legal system, that punishes those who don't abide by the law, would be useless - Since people wouldn't have control over their actions and therefore no one could punish them, since what happened had to happen. It's basically a necessity and letting go the concept of free will would have devastating consequences, I must accept it, at least as a fiction, I can't prove free will exists but I assume, at least for legal and social matters, that it does, and I plan my life according to it, as we all do to an extent.
I think that going into the pro and cons debate, the best argument for free will (whether it's complete or limited) is that people feel free daily, they are able to make conscious decisions and change their mind, they feel the power to choose often and prefer X to Y or A to B, it's something we humans feel due to our rationality and put into practice, although it's complicated to explain; the best con argument would be that There's no evidence that proves free will exists from an empirical standpoint
In the end, all I can say is that I don't know, free will may exist or not, but I assume, at least partially, that it does out of human necessity.
Indeterminism - Everything is random and happens out of randomness, all events are non linear and have no explanation, they happen because they do, motivated by a caused that happened to be there, but if it wasn't that wouldn't have happened, or would have happened differently
Determinism - All of you are familiar with this, everything has a cause, is pre-determined, and we have little to no control over all naturalistic events that occur
Moderate determinism - Everything has a cause, but we get to make a choice - We are conditioned by biological, social, legal and ethical factors as complex beings, there are many things we don't control, that happen and can't be prevented, but we do get a margin of choice from time to time, sometimes more often. I pick this orientation
Complete freedom - We are free to do what we want and we can choose freely all the events that take part. For obvious reasons I don't think free will would be infinite (if it happens to exist) so I dismiss this orientation.
As a law student with preference for criminal law, I must assume some free will exists otherwise the whole legal system, that punishes those who don't abide by the law, would be useless - Since people wouldn't have control over their actions and therefore no one could punish them, since what happened had to happen. It's basically a necessity and letting go the concept of free will would have devastating consequences, I must accept it, at least as a fiction, I can't prove free will exists but I assume, at least for legal and social matters, that it does, and I plan my life according to it, as we all do to an extent.
I think that going into the pro and cons debate, the best argument for free will (whether it's complete or limited) is that people feel free daily, they are able to make conscious decisions and change their mind, they feel the power to choose often and prefer X to Y or A to B, it's something we humans feel due to our rationality and put into practice, although it's complicated to explain; the best con argument would be that There's no evidence that proves free will exists from an empirical standpoint
In the end, all I can say is that I don't know, free will may exist or not, but I assume, at least partially, that it does out of human necessity.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
