this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
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[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 14 points 6 days ago (9 children)

I mean, it's pretty obvious free will is an illusion if you stop and think about how the universe functions. If everything is governed by physics, then why would we be special? In order for "true" free will to exist, it is necessary to exist outside the realm of physics in order to make decisions without said decisions being affected by the chemical and electrical signals in your brain. You have to be able to make choices that won't be influenced by the physical world, which, afaik, there is no evidence for.

However, even from a philosophical standpoint: if we rewound time to the last major choice you made, so that you could make it all over again, would you do anything different?

Keep in mind that we rewound time and you don't have any new knowledge that you acquired after originally making the choice.

Personally, I can't see a reason why I'd make any other choice. As such, that seems like a much larger existential crisis in the same vein that you should be concerned with.

[–] Dadifer@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I don't agree with this version of the free will argument. I prefer to ask the question, is anything outside the local system affecting my decisions. Think of a toaster. It has buttons and levers, but once you press them, it can do whatever it wants. It's a contained system. It was preprogrammed or designed to respond a certain way, but if it short-circuits or something inside changes, it does that independent of your will or input.

In your case, you are made of chemical and electrical signals, so your argument is like saying, do I have free will if my brain is making the decisions? The real question is, is there anything outside your brain that is affecting your decisions. Otherwise, congratulations! You have free will!

Almost everything your brain decides is affected by things outside of it.

We are a mixture of chemical desires and social + cultural outputs. Free will is an illusion. Its been done. Philosophers did to to free will what they did to God and capitalism.

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