RE: Most Humans Do NOT Have Completely Frree Will
April 14, 2016 at 1:00 am
(This post was last modified: April 14, 2016 at 1:01 am by bennyboy.)
(April 13, 2016 at 11:58 pm)Evie Wrote:(April 13, 2016 at 11:51 pm)bennyboy Wrote: Sure I do. I go to the candy aisle, look at the choices available, and choose the one I like. Freely.
We've been through this before.
You just add the "freely" part on the end without reason. As for the rest, so what?
The whole point is that the decisions we make are not freely chosen, not that we don't make the choices.
Sure it was made freely. Nobody is stopping me from choosing the candy that I want. I look at my choices, consider which one I'd like, and reach out and choose it. That's pretty much the definition of free will.
Now, what you are really trying to say is that decision-making is a deterministic process. That means that I'm a product of DNA and environment, and that at the moment I choose my candy, I was definitely going to choose the one I want.
But that's not a problem. Because free will is my ability to express my personhood in my decisions without compulsion from outside agents (like the Devil, or like my mom). And nobody said I had the free will to form my own identity-- that would be paradoxical. If there is a candy that most appeals to me, WHY would I want to choose other than I do? That I can only act in one way in a given moment simply means that I have a well-established identity, and act according to it. Freely.
