Free Will
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:50 pm
OK HERE WE GO
I am new to this forum, but I have been having a great time connecting with people that have similar ideologies to me, as they are uncommon to come across in everyday life. I like discussing the hard topics (Veganism, Atheism, Morality, etc.), although sometimes I feel I am talking to answering machines who spit back the same questions over and over again. I understand most people are not educated or well versed in these topics, but trying so often to convince people of certain things I believe in gets tiring when we cannot have an educated/sophisticated conversation after I lay out my ideals.
I wanted to start this thread because I did not see anything relating to free will posted here before and I find the topic to be extremely interesting and difficult to make sense of. First off, my opinion on this subject is largely influenced by Sam Harris, who I am sure many of you have heard of before, and YouTubers such as RationalityRules and CosmicSkeptic. These are the people my ideals resonate best with and I find their content so interesting (I highly recommend checking them out if you have not before along with the multitude of other science/philosophy channels out there).
I'm going to try and explain this as best I can, but keep in mind I am new to this sort of discussion.
I am convinced that we, being our conscience, have no control over our physical or mental activities.
Let me give you an example used by many: Chocolate or Vanilla? Which do you prefer and why? You may have a simple answer or you may be undecided. What leads you to the final decision? Let's say that you like both equally. You would think you have complete control over which flavor you want for a host of reasons, but do you have any say in those reasons? How can you explain your craving for chocolate (vegan of course) ice cream at 8 PM?
This pattern works with a host of situations: Let's say you go to the gym to work out, even though you absolutely hate it. Most would say that you have the free will to decide to go to that gym because you are overpowering your already present feeling to stay at home and eat junk all day. There has to be some feeling of WANTing to get fit and healthy that overpowers your WANT to lay in bed all day.
This is what it comes down to: Want.
You cannot decide what you want. You can simply feel that you do want something for reasons you have no control over. Your brain is using logic to decide that going to the gym will benefit you in the long run, even though it sucks now. Even if your brain decided to not go to the gym, it is using whatever "logic" it possesses to make the decision that staying home will be of greater positive impact to your well being, whether or not it is correct is simply up to the neurons firing and the chemistry doing its thing.
This my interpretation of the philosophical reason to justify the lack of free will.
There have been studies done that support the idea of free will not existing. Here is a video from previously mentioned RationalityRules that basically outlines my ideals in greater depth, as he is much more experienced in this sort of thing. I will also include a video from CosmicSkeptic outlining basically what i just spent the past 30 minutes typing.
Rationality Rules - "Free Will - Debunked": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Oyi1T-HmU
CosmicSkeptic - "Why Free WIll Doesn't Exist": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwaXqep-bpk
There are plenty of sources that you should check out from RationalityRules' video. Please leave any questions/comments as a reply as I am so interested to see the reactions of many. Thank you for reading!
I am new to this forum, but I have been having a great time connecting with people that have similar ideologies to me, as they are uncommon to come across in everyday life. I like discussing the hard topics (Veganism, Atheism, Morality, etc.), although sometimes I feel I am talking to answering machines who spit back the same questions over and over again. I understand most people are not educated or well versed in these topics, but trying so often to convince people of certain things I believe in gets tiring when we cannot have an educated/sophisticated conversation after I lay out my ideals.
I wanted to start this thread because I did not see anything relating to free will posted here before and I find the topic to be extremely interesting and difficult to make sense of. First off, my opinion on this subject is largely influenced by Sam Harris, who I am sure many of you have heard of before, and YouTubers such as RationalityRules and CosmicSkeptic. These are the people my ideals resonate best with and I find their content so interesting (I highly recommend checking them out if you have not before along with the multitude of other science/philosophy channels out there).
I'm going to try and explain this as best I can, but keep in mind I am new to this sort of discussion.
I am convinced that we, being our conscience, have no control over our physical or mental activities.
Let me give you an example used by many: Chocolate or Vanilla? Which do you prefer and why? You may have a simple answer or you may be undecided. What leads you to the final decision? Let's say that you like both equally. You would think you have complete control over which flavor you want for a host of reasons, but do you have any say in those reasons? How can you explain your craving for chocolate (vegan of course) ice cream at 8 PM?
This pattern works with a host of situations: Let's say you go to the gym to work out, even though you absolutely hate it. Most would say that you have the free will to decide to go to that gym because you are overpowering your already present feeling to stay at home and eat junk all day. There has to be some feeling of WANTing to get fit and healthy that overpowers your WANT to lay in bed all day.
This is what it comes down to: Want.
You cannot decide what you want. You can simply feel that you do want something for reasons you have no control over. Your brain is using logic to decide that going to the gym will benefit you in the long run, even though it sucks now. Even if your brain decided to not go to the gym, it is using whatever "logic" it possesses to make the decision that staying home will be of greater positive impact to your well being, whether or not it is correct is simply up to the neurons firing and the chemistry doing its thing.
This my interpretation of the philosophical reason to justify the lack of free will.
There have been studies done that support the idea of free will not existing. Here is a video from previously mentioned RationalityRules that basically outlines my ideals in greater depth, as he is much more experienced in this sort of thing. I will also include a video from CosmicSkeptic outlining basically what i just spent the past 30 minutes typing.
Rationality Rules - "Free Will - Debunked": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Oyi1T-HmU
CosmicSkeptic - "Why Free WIll Doesn't Exist": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwaXqep-bpk
There are plenty of sources that you should check out from RationalityRules' video. Please leave any questions/comments as a reply as I am so interested to see the reactions of many. Thank you for reading!