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About LinkBacksAccording to me, Will is the main thing. Sometimes fate helps us to reach the destination, sometimes it opposes.
According to me, Will is the main thing. Sometimes fate helps us to reach the destination, sometimes it opposes.
I believe that we, as humans, are destined for different things from the moment we are conceived. Some are destined to do great things on a larger scale while others are destined to do small things on a smaller scale. Either way, we all have some purpose for being. Do we all live up to our destinies? I think not.
"That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call “free will” is your mind’s freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom, the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character.To think is an act of choice. The key to what you so recklessly call “human nature,” the open secret you live with, yet dread to name, is the fact that man is a being of volitional consciousness. Reason does not work automatically; thinking is not a mechanical process; the connections of logic are not made by instinct. The function of your stomach, lungs or heart is automatic; the function of your mind is not. In any hour and issue of your life, you are free to think or to evade that effort. But you are not free to escape from your nature, from the fact that reason is your means of survival—so that for you, who are a human being, the question “to be or not to be” is the question “to think or not to think.” A being of volitional consciousness has no automatic course of behavior. He needs a code of values to guide his actions." - Ayn Rand on free will.
"The key to every man is this thought. Sturdy and defying though he may look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wow I have never thought of it this way. This has got me baffled right now. I have always been a believer in free will and a mostly non believer in higher powers. I have however always left it open for possibility that there could be something out there god like. So I will have to agree with this that everything is predetermined and honestly the only argument that I can see against this would be that there is something else inside us that defies the laws of physics that is controlling the matter in our brains. We would be our own mini-gods controlling our own matter. Honestly I think this might be the case probably simply because I am defiant against the idea that I am not in control of my own actions. Yet my previous beliefs tell me this is highly unlikely.Originally Posted by s2cuts
Ahh this is crazy. But if you believe that you can control the matter inside you giving you free will that's gotta make you feel pretty powerful eh :)
The free will question will always be one that troubles humans. Logic tells us that free will can't exist in a deterministic universe, yet every ounce of our being tells us that it does. Our minds are constantly thinking and making decisions, reinforcing the idea of free will. But this conversation, the words I type, this sppeling m1sstAk3... all predestined.
MrInternet already brought up the compatibilism argument which states that determinism and free will can coexist. See the work of Daniel Dennet. There are probably others. For me, to accept free will in a true sense, you have to abandon determinism. If you abandon determinism you have to give up on ever being able to understand how the universe works. If there's no determinism, then there can be no rules. And on, and on...
I think you're right in that there is some kind of link between gods and the supernatural world they live in, and free will. Though, I personally find the question of god(s) far easier to deal with for some reason. And seeing that I choose to live my life as if free will exists (holding myself and others responsible for their actions), I feel like quite the hypocrite. Oh well, it's probably the hardest question man has ever asked.
Looking for a tracker review? ---------> MIA, we'll figure out something else soon.
Yes this truly is an astounding question. I was with a couple friends the other day and I brought this up and I must say the argument that followed was one of the deepest and most intriguing arguments I've taken part in a long while.
And I can't blame you when you say you feel like a hypocrite. So many aspects of this subject appear to be contradictions. Where you would think according to a scientific approach there has to be free will but in reality it is quite the opposite. In order (for me at least) to accept free will we need to abandon and go outside of the known scientific boundaries. I am not used to doing that.
To be clear, I feel like a hypocrite because of my acceptance of free will even though I don't believe in it. Deducing that free will does not exist is a fairly simple matter, however abstract it may seem. It's far easier to live life accepting the far more tangible and ever present notion of free will. All of our social systems are built upon it.
If the topic really interests you, you should try and understand the compatibilism argument. I would recommend Dennett. You can find some youtube videos of him lecturing on the topic.
Brief: YouTube - Dennett on free will and determinism
Longer, better: YouTube - Daniel Dennett lecture on "Free Will" (Edinburgh University)
Or for fun try re-watching The Matrix series with free will in mind. It can be fun to try and figure out what the movie is trying to say about the topic.
Looking for a tracker review? ---------> MIA, we'll figure out something else soon.
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