Name: Anonymous 2005-12-07 18:14
I’m sorry, maybe this is beating the dead horse but I just couldn’t resist (especially after the sentience thread):
Does ‘Free Will’ exist?
Seeing this is Science board, I’m probably preaching to the choir.
Classic Newtonian physics denies any possibility and that everything follows certain, empirical rules. If we know all the rules of physics and every particle current state, then we can predict everything about the universe. This view of determinism is known as Laplace’s Demon.
This goes directly against my intuition, that there is volition-based mental causation. When I raise my arm, it is me deciding to raise my arm and not the result of the Newtonian, biological, and subconscious.
Granted, I would secede that much of life is predetermined. The domain of our choices is limited to biology, nature v nurture, and physics. But this does not connect with the innate idea of choice and that I’m choosing because of the awareness of other possibilities. Of course, Epiphenomanalists would argue that there is no such thing as mental causation. This is also counter-intuitive to me because my intuitions tell me I’m not some mind stuck in a body I can’t control.
I’m not a fan of time-travel thought experiments, “If time is reversed, could I have made a different choice?” The influence of science leads me to believe NO. Free will could only exists in the present, In real time, at the moment.
The probabilities and randomness in Quantum Mechanics don’t factor in Free Will, I believe. Random does not mean free. Also, Libet’s experimentations on the neurology of Free Will seem moot to me also.
Also, morality seems based on the assumption of free will.
When someone derives some equation that perfectly predicts my behavior, that’s when I’ll be convinced.
And that’s the day I commit Existential suicide.
P.S I believe in Free Will.
Does ‘Free Will’ exist?
Seeing this is Science board, I’m probably preaching to the choir.
Classic Newtonian physics denies any possibility and that everything follows certain, empirical rules. If we know all the rules of physics and every particle current state, then we can predict everything about the universe. This view of determinism is known as Laplace’s Demon.
This goes directly against my intuition, that there is volition-based mental causation. When I raise my arm, it is me deciding to raise my arm and not the result of the Newtonian, biological, and subconscious.
Granted, I would secede that much of life is predetermined. The domain of our choices is limited to biology, nature v nurture, and physics. But this does not connect with the innate idea of choice and that I’m choosing because of the awareness of other possibilities. Of course, Epiphenomanalists would argue that there is no such thing as mental causation. This is also counter-intuitive to me because my intuitions tell me I’m not some mind stuck in a body I can’t control.
I’m not a fan of time-travel thought experiments, “If time is reversed, could I have made a different choice?” The influence of science leads me to believe NO. Free will could only exists in the present, In real time, at the moment.
The probabilities and randomness in Quantum Mechanics don’t factor in Free Will, I believe. Random does not mean free. Also, Libet’s experimentations on the neurology of Free Will seem moot to me also.
Also, morality seems based on the assumption of free will.
When someone derives some equation that perfectly predicts my behavior, that’s when I’ll be convinced.
And that’s the day I commit Existential suicide.
P.S I believe in Free Will.