Free Will An Illusion? (No Eco)

[Tedel]

Read Fear for Freedom and you will find your answer.

[NeoSeminole]

IndiReloaded says:

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodingers_cat"

I don't see a "yes" or "no" or an explanation why. No offense but if you are incapable of answering in your own words, then don't bother posting in here.

[NeoSeminole]

Tedel says:

"Read Fear for Freedom and you will find your answer."

or you can paraphrase what it says assuming you understood the material.

[Mish]

Let's imagine we can rewind time. Suppose that 10 min. ago you made the conscious decision to raise your arm. If we went backwards to that exact point in time when you made the decision to raise your arm, do you believe you would make the same choice again given that every condition leading up to that moment is exactly the same? Yes or no? Also explain why.

That would depend a lot on internal and external circumstances. If we are dealing with going back to the past we must assume alternative events that can influence history. Say if 10 minutes ago a fire alarm was tripped and your office had to be evacuated, you most likely would be doing other things instead of raising your arm. Likewise alternative internal events will influence your actions. If you suddenly felt hungry 10 minutes ago, you'd most likely go out looking for food instead of raising your arm. At the end of the day, our emotions guide our behaviour more than our conscious mind.

Just like you though, I question how much free will we really have. We do have it, because we can consciously influence our actions. But how much of it is already pre-programmed remains a mystery. There seems to be some sort of an internal motivator that we follow, a kind of a genetic map (maybe) that guides our actions. It guides us to important things in life I think, like when it's time to leave home, when it's time to establish ourselves in the real world, when it's time to reproduce etc...

[IndiReloaded]

IndiReloaded says:

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodingers_cat"

I don't see a "yes" or "no" or an explanation why. No offense but if you are incapable of answering in your own words, then don't bother posting in here.

Yours isn't a 'yes' or 'no' type question. Its a hypothetical 'maybe' type question.

Anyway, my answer is 'maybe'. Even if we could time travel, we wouldn't be able to reproduce the *exact* same conditions at that same moment in time. There is always randomness in the system that can have unknown effects.

IMO, perhaps 99% of the time, given the same conditions, that person will raise their hand. But there is always that chance something will be different such that they won't.

NOW, go and read about Schrodinger's Cat. Hope that helps.

[Tedel]

"Read Fear for Freedom and you will find your answer."

OK, the main point is that we make our decisions because we have learnt codes and behaviour habits along our lives. Taking that into account, our free-will is just conditioned to what we learnt.

But what if we learn to think by ourselves? Artists (like me) do that easily, but what about the rest of us? Most people are afraid of being free because they know that making their own decisions make them solely responsible for bearing the consequences. To avoid this, they prefer to cling to something: follow a leader, a habit, a tradition, rules... etc.