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Depends on what someone perceives as a problem.
Doesn´t follow.
What is it with you and the "problems"? I wasn´t discussing problems.
What?
Maybe that´s your question. It´s not the question of this thread.
But if we are determined are we really influencing the future any more than a rock?
I don't think I said it was outside my control, but the factors that lead to me picking up the pen are outside my control.
I might pick up a pen for the purpose of writing this example, but the reason I picked it up is because I feel like I am lying if I don't actually pick up a pen while writing this. I feel like I am lying because when I was younger I was taught that lying is always bad, and this has become part of my subconscious. I choose not to fight against this inclination to pick up a pen because I don't feel a strong enough feeling of rebellion. Etc...
The example could go on forever until every time I acted has been explained since my birth.
I make the choice. I just wasn't free to make any other choice. I was always going to make that choice considering my prior state of mind and the stimuli around me.
Firstly, I don't think we should try to separate ourselves too far from animals. Obviously we are different, but other apes aren't so different from us. In fact the difference between a human and a chimpanzee probably isn't much, if any, bigger than the difference between a child and an adult human.
Secondly, even if the mind isn't determined by the physics of nature, that doesn't mean we are free. The mind must still work by rules, and those rules will still determine it. If you decide you decide for a reason, and that reason will ultimately be your determination. (I say hoping I have used that word correctly).
Humans are different from animals, but they still share certain characteristics. For example, neither has free will.
There are good reasons to believe that the mind is not separate from the body, hence is not an exception to the rules of nature.
What she meant, if I understood her correctly, was that even if we accept the notion that the mind is somehow except from the rules of nature (for which we have no reason), there's still no reason to think that it doesn't abide to its own rules, which would ultimately make the mind deterministic without having it abide to the rules of nature.
The neurotransmitters aren't the rules, rather the rules of the mind would be determined by the rules of nature, the materials of your brain (which include the neurotransmitters) and the way your brain is built.
Depends on what someone perceives as a problem.
Yet, the original question was not for problems, anyway. It was a question whether we think our will is free.
Doesn´t follow.
What is it with you and the "problems"? I wasn´t discussing problems.
What?
Maybe that´s your question. It´s not the question of this thread.
The factors that led to your decision might be outside your control, but how you react to them is not
.
In what way is the way the brain works predetermined? There could have been a million other outcomes; she could have chosen to leave the pen alone or pick up another one
Ah, so "free will" doesn´t mean that your will is free but that you are free to exercise your will. Shouldn´t we call that "free exercise" - for clarity´s sake?
