Pretty simply, who we are is made up of two things: nature, and nurture.
Nature is the information already encoded in our DNA: from our height to our skin color to our propensity to fall victim to addiction to a thousand other things.
Nurture is the experiences we live, the influence of the people around us and of society.
Now, we are born without nurture by definition, so there all our choices are made by our genetic information. Then, the influence of parents, then family, friends, teachers, makes us who we are. And every choice we make is dependent of what we already experienced. Even when we make a choice, it is dictated by nature or nurture. Even when you break away from what you have been taught, there is a natural or "nurtural" reason for it.
So the question is: since we are products of two concepts that we have absolutely no control over, do we make decisions at all or are we just complicated pre-programmed machines, with no free will ?
Nature is the information already encoded in our DNA: from our height to our skin color to our propensity to fall victim to addiction to a thousand other things.
Nurture is the experiences we live, the influence of the people around us and of society.
Now, we are born without nurture by definition, so there all our choices are made by our genetic information. Then, the influence of parents, then family, friends, teachers, makes us who we are. And every choice we make is dependent of what we already experienced. Even when we make a choice, it is dictated by nature or nurture. Even when you break away from what you have been taught, there is a natural or "nurtural" reason for it.
So the question is: since we are products of two concepts that we have absolutely no control over, do we make decisions at all or are we just complicated pre-programmed machines, with no free will ?
