Like you said, it's impossible to know.
But I find it stimulating to consider my options.
You weren't debating in the comments on YouTube were you? Because those things are just rubbish.. I swear most of the people who argue on there don't have a life. It's not intelligent, it's not rational, and it's certainly not enlightening
I think that science can only begin to explain it. For example, I think determinism works like an equation, albeit a very complicated one. Like you said, every action has an effect, and those effects caused other effects, and so on. So all we'd need to do is get those effects, put them together and we'd have the same thing right? In theory, yes. But think about the magnitude of this task. Just starting with a thought, think about all the things which might influence a thought. A feeling, an emotion, another thought, something you see, smell, hear, taste or touch, or an intuition could all be involved. Just to take one step back would mean looking at a million things and the order of their exposure to the subject. So it's a bit of a dead end. And I can understand the whole free-will/indeterminism belief, but like I said, it just doesn't work with what I've observed, though I have of course, I have no solid, empirical evidence.
I've seen my share of stupid arguments for determinism too, and I used to believe adamantly in free will, believing that we wouldn't be human without it. But whoever said that we had to have it? Before we thought about being free, we probably never thought about free will. We just lived life, not in the least concerned nor even aware of whether free will existed or not. It's an interesting though.
I find that to argue about it properly, you have to accept that you can't actually prove either side, and this is where so many people get caught up.
You seen that Family Guy episode where Peter's ancestor is a philosopher? His wife tells him to go to work and he says... why?
Reminds me of myself and the way I look at free will, and follow it to its end.
I'm always looking for the why.
But I find it stimulating to consider my options.
You weren't debating in the comments on YouTube were you? Because those things are just rubbish.. I swear most of the people who argue on there don't have a life. It's not intelligent, it's not rational, and it's certainly not enlightening
I think that science can only begin to explain it. For example, I think determinism works like an equation, albeit a very complicated one. Like you said, every action has an effect, and those effects caused other effects, and so on. So all we'd need to do is get those effects, put them together and we'd have the same thing right? In theory, yes. But think about the magnitude of this task. Just starting with a thought, think about all the things which might influence a thought. A feeling, an emotion, another thought, something you see, smell, hear, taste or touch, or an intuition could all be involved. Just to take one step back would mean looking at a million things and the order of their exposure to the subject. So it's a bit of a dead end. And I can understand the whole free-will/indeterminism belief, but like I said, it just doesn't work with what I've observed, though I have of course, I have no solid, empirical evidence.
I've seen my share of stupid arguments for determinism too, and I used to believe adamantly in free will, believing that we wouldn't be human without it. But whoever said that we had to have it? Before we thought about being free, we probably never thought about free will. We just lived life, not in the least concerned nor even aware of whether free will existed or not. It's an interesting though.
I find that to argue about it properly, you have to accept that you can't actually prove either side, and this is where so many people get caught up.
You seen that Family Guy episode where Peter's ancestor is a philosopher? His wife tells him to go to work and he says... why?
Reminds me of myself and the way I look at free will, and follow it to its end. I'm always looking for the why.
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability." Oscar Wilde
My Blog | Why I Don't Believe in God
My Blog | Why I Don't Believe in God
