Is there such a thing as free will?

Yggdrasil · Jul 20, 2007

I do not think there is free will.

Some interesting reading on the subject:

http://www.the-highway.com/Myth.html

http://www.naturalism.org/horgan.htm#losingfaith

elman · Jul 20, 2007

Yggdrasil said:
I do not think there is free will.

Some interesting reading on the subject:

http://www.the-highway.com/Myth.html

http://www.naturalism.org/horgan.htm#losingfaith

You use your free will to not believe in it and I will use mine to believe in it.

AuraTwilight · Jul 20, 2007

Bob tells Joe to eat an apple. Joe tells Bob to screw off and eats some grapes. Joe has exhibited free will. I don't see why this is debated so intensely.

onewithnature · Jul 20, 2007

elman said:
You use your free will to not believe in it and I will use mine to believe in it.

you´re stil ignoring what I said. Free will is an elaborate hallucination.
When you people read what I post it seems that you are constantly telling yourself "I am right and he is wrong". You should read without judging first. Learn to be good listeners for once.

Yggdrasil · Jul 20, 2007

elman said:
You use your free will to not believe in it and I will use mine to believe in it.

You never really make decisions on your own, external and internal factors MAKE YOU decide.

Quietuss · Jul 20, 2007

Bob tells Joe to eat an apple. Joe tells Bob to screw off and eats some grapes. Joe has exhibited free will. I don't see why this is debated so intensely.

It was his destiny to eat grapes.

onewithnature · Jul 20, 2007

^^ well said to both posts above me.

I´m stil trying to figure out a better way to explain this.

Quietuss · Jul 20, 2007

Free will doesn't make sense without god.

quatona · Jul 20, 2007

onewithnature said:
^^ well said to both posts above me.

I´m stil trying to figure out a better way to explain this.

Good luck! (no sarcasm)
I have been trying to figure out a better way to explain this hundreds? of times, with no success.

Quietuss · Jul 20, 2007

You are just a body, there is no mind. You are like a rock.

JGL53 · Jul 20, 2007

All you brainiacs can argue with the guy whose name is synonymous with genius:

"In human freedom in the philosophical sense I am definitely a disbeliever. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer's saying, that "a man can do as he will, but not will as he will," has been an inspiration to me since my youth up, and a continual consolation and unfailing well-spring of patience in the face of the hardships of life, my own and others'. This feeling mercifully mitigates the sense of responsibility which so easily becomes paralyzing and it prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it conduces to a view of life in which humor, above all, has its due place."
- Albert Einstein

JSynon · Jul 20, 2007

I don't think there is actually a justification of free will in the strict philosophical sense. The concept seems to me to have been created in theological circles to justify punishment (i.e. temporary and eternal punishment).

In a more pragmatic sense, though, we all believe in free will because we all feel that we have free will. Whatever it is that we label "free will" surely exists because we created it.

Yggdrasil · Jul 21, 2007

JGL53 said:
All you brainiacs can argue with the guy whose name is synonymous with genius:

"In human freedom in the philosophical sense I am definitely a disbeliever. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer's saying, that "a man can do as he will, but not will as he will," has been an inspiration to me since my youth up, and a continual consolation and unfailing well-spring of patience in the face of the hardships of life, my own and others'. This feeling mercifully mitigates the sense of responsibility which so easily becomes paralyzing and it prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it conduces to a view of life in which humor, above all, has its due place."
- Albert Einstein

Actually, Einstein was wrong most of the time, plus there were many brighter men in his time than he.

Gracchus · Jul 21, 2007

I've said before (I chose to.) and I'll say it again (I have to.): Those who believe in free will have to do it. Those who don't believe in free will choose not to do it.

Gracchus · Jul 21, 2007

Yggdrasil said:
Actually, Einstein was wrong most of the time, plus there were many brighter men in his time than he.

Can you cite statistics?

AuraTwilight · Jul 21, 2007

It was his destiny to eat grapes.

It was his destiny to eat the Apple. He ate the Grapes.

Touma · Jul 21, 2007

If there is free will, why don't we have a choice to decide to have it or not?

AuraTwilight · Jul 21, 2007

Just because you have Free Will doesn't mean you get to have your way at all the time. Choosing and getting your choice are two entirely different things.

I can choose to have chicken for dinner, but if it's not available, tough beans.

funyun · Jul 23, 2007

Schopenhauer was dead on. The concept of free will, that is, the ability for an individual actor to act entirely independent from external influence, is the most asinine of the long-lived and nigh-universally-believed philosophical falsities.

elman · Jul 23, 2007

Zilam said:
If there is free will, why don't we have a choice to decide to have it or not?

Because free will is not unlimited choices. No one argues we have unlimited choices. Some do chose to believe we have no choices.

Is there such a thing as free will?

Is there such a thing as free will?

yes

no

don't know

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"God"? What do you mean??

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aude sapere...sed praeterea, aude esse

elman

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